Adrianna Contreras
Kaplan University
CM220
Professor Thompson
May 1, 2012
In the middle of the night, a police comes to the Johnsons door to tell them that an accident has occurred and that their teenage daughter is deceased and another teen is in critical care. The accident was caused by texting and driving. Now the Johnsons have to go the morgue and identify their daughter, this is an accident that could have been prevented. In the Treasure Valley, there have been too many of these scenarios that have become a reality. Texting and driving should have the same consequences as drinking and driving because they are both caused by reckless driving. With the severity of the consequences this will lower the death rate and accident rate of accidents caused by texting and driving both locally and nationally. In the area In Ontario Oregon, there have been several accidents that have occurred where teens have been driving while texting and have caused accidents with minor injuries or other accidents that have caused death. Texting and driving is a distraction while driving and should be banned. I propose that texting and driving should become outlawed and offences be treated just like drinking and driving.
Studies have shown that texting and driving is worse than drinking and driving. Because texting is new to the times, there really is no type of testing done to prove that texting and driving do cause accidents and is unsafe. It has been proven, however, that it takes five seconds to look at a text message and refocus the eyes back on the road again. As stated in an article, “In Study, Texting, Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin”, in that time, a person can drive about a football field. (Richetel, 2009) To be able to drive and text and look at the road for five seconds and is equivalent to a football field, that is a very dangerous, especially on the freeway. Drivers are on the road texting and driving and could be the one to cause a deadly
References: courant.com. (2012, March 21). Retrieved May 17, 2012, from http://articles.courant.com: http://articles.courant.com/2012-03-21/news/hc-op-ferrari-texting-while-driving-0321-20120320_1_text-and-drive-cellphone-related-university-of-utah-study Lebeau, P. (2009, June 25). Textingand driving worse than drinking and driving. Retrieved April 17, 2012, from CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/31545004/Texting_And_Driving_Worse_Than_Drinking_and_Driving Richetel, M. (2009, July 28). In Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin. The New York Times , p. 3.