Timothy 1

Levi Timothy
Mrs. Jackie Burr, Instructor
English 1010, Section 2
October 27, 2016

Distracted Driving and Cell Phones: The Problem America Has Created For Itself
Distracted driving is growing at an alarming rate in America. Distracted driving has
affected the life of a teenage boy named Bryan greatly. Bryan is a Cross country runner and
hurdler for the track team at his high school. During the cross country season his team has
practices before school in the morning at about 5:30 a.m. On one particular morning Bryan and
his team went on a run for their morning practice. About half a mile into the run a truck was
driving towards the team with a speed of about 50mph in the neighborhood. As the truck got
closer it crossed the line into the emergency lane straight towards the runners. The team had only
seconds to get out of the way of the truck before it would have hit everyone. Bryan was not
fortunate to get out of the way completely. He was hit and had a complete fracture to both his
fibula and tibia in his right leg. The brake was was so severe that doctors could not set the bones
back to how it is normally. Doctors had to perform surgery and placed a metal rod into his leg to
keep the bones in place so they would naturally heal. Bryan will not be able to walk on his leg
for about a month, he will be on crutches for three months including the first month, he will not
be able to walk normally for six months, and he will be in physical therapy for another six
months. Distracted driving and cell phones have an effect on people in America every day in.
Distracted driving is an issue that is not the first issue thought of about because America wants to

Timothy 2

think it it not as important as the other issues that America has, but this issue is something that
will affect the future of America if it is not addressed soon.
The example given is a very mild way that distracted driving affects lives daily. Families
are affected every year from family members being killed from someone distracted and driving.
According to research from 1999 to 2008 on the trends in fatalities from distracted driving in
2008 close to 5870 people died from distracted driving, with 59.1 percent of those deaths from
non-vehicular collisions,
and 60.2 percent in rural
areas and 39.8 percent in
urban areas, as compared
to in 1999 with about
4563 deaths, with 53.2
percent of those
non-vehicular, and 67.3
percent in rural and 32.7
percent in urban
areas(para. Wilson and
Stimpson 2214). This
problem has been
growing in america more
and more than
necessary(see Table1).

Timothy 3

One of biggest problems America is facing with this problem is that the new drivers are
so easily distracted that they can not wait a few minutes while driving to look at a phone or look
away from the road for any reason, and as seen in the graph above(see Table 1), from Wilson and
Stimpsons academic article, it gives a statistic that 39.0 percent of all distracted collisions are
from drivers drivers of age 16 years of age to 29 years of age(para. Wilson and Stimpson 2214).
The other major problem that America is attempting to try to eradicate is the temptation of of the
cell phone in general for every driver. One particular magazine that talks about the issue of
young drivers and what they do when they see person, possibly a friend, on phone, and it states:
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
survey on distracted driving revealed that young people are [t]he
least likely passengers to speak up if the driver is texting or talking
on a cell phone. Despite about 90% of respondents saying they
considered a driver who was texting to be very unsafe, only about
one-third of passengers ages 18 to 24 reported they would say
something to a driver who was talking on a cell phone, compared to
about half of drivers age 65 and older.(Young passengers 20)
Distracted driving is beginning to show what issues it bring to drivers in America, and an article
that addresses some of the things that cellphones cause drivers to have,[Distracted driving,] Cell
phone use[,] and sending text messages while driving causes drivers to suffer from impaired
visual scanning, inattention blindness, impaired ability to react appropriately [to any unexpected
changes in traffic that may occur](Cell Phone 18). These conditions that affect drivers make
them not only a danger to themselves but to every single person on the road.

Timothy 4

Distracted driving is beginning to go past the general idea of only texting on a cellphone.
One particular article announces that from a survey were over 900 motorists, from ages 18-29,
and this survey found that accessing the internet on a cell phone while driving increased from
29% in 2009 to 43% in 2011, checking social media while driving increased from 21% in 2009
to 37% in 2011, while driving increased from 20% in 2009 to 33% in 2011(Distracted driving
24). The article continues with the statistics from the survey by telling that drivers 18 years of
age to 29 years of age said they have texted while driving in 2009, but it number dropped to 64%
in 2011(Distracted driving 24). This number has most likely dropped from the dishonesty of
young drivers who have the fear of getting caught and losing their license for a set amount of
time, or from the new bans/laws that have been put in place to lower the number of distracted
driving collisions.
As mentioned previously, there have now been bans on cellphone use while driving in
many states in America. A police officer is now allowed to pull over and hand out tickets for
usage of a cell phone by a driver to assist in lowering the number of distracted driving collisions.
Cheng Cheng addresses this idea that if bans are placed to prevent cell phone usage:
Results provide strong evidence that drivers reduce visible cell phone use when
cell phone bans increase the expected cost of doing so. Specifically, cell phone
bans significantly lower a drivers probability of talking and texting on a handheld
cell phone while driving by 50% and 60%, respectively. These results are robust
to various robustness checks such as allowing for region-year or
region-year-quarter fixed effects to account for common regional shocks,
including state-specific linear time trends to impose more flexible assumptions on

Timothy 5

unobservables, and using different definitions of cell phone bans. In addition, the
results are robust to including controls for characteristics of individual drivers and
survey observational sites. There is also no evidence that the ban's effect seat belt
usage, which suggests it is unlikely the results are driven by other concurrent
policies aimed at improving driver safety.(Cheng 1422)
As Cheng as said that the bans are beginning to lower the amount of collisions have dropped
significantly by 50 percent(Cheng 1442).
Many large car manufacturers are producing cars that now to assist in lowering amount of
distracted collisions. One particular manufacturer is Hyundai, and with the Hyundai Veloster
they produced a commercial to announce that they have made a car with hands free calling
capabilities(Rosenberger 38). This new capability that many manufacturers are adding to their
cars to make cell phones connect to the car via bluetooth is not assisting as much as they wish it
was. Many countries Worldwide have banned talking or texting on a handheld device all
together, while The U.S. has only banned texting on a handheld device, and a very small number
of countries have banned hands free devices(Rosenberg 38). Rosenberg addresses the issue about
how there are new ways that that car manufaturers have made hands free devices easier:
The new developments enabling hands-free cellular communication while driving
come in two forms. The first are newly emerging voice interface smartphone
applications. These are programs that enable usersincluding driversto operate
a number of a smartphones functions through voice command. These include
placing a call, dictating text messages, and having incoming text messages read
aloud by the computer. The most influential of these is the iPhones Siri

Timothy 6

application that offers a discussion-style interface with many of the smartphones

features. The second form of hands-free communication available to drivers is
cellular phone and Internet systems built into a cars dashboard. These new
features enable drivers to call and text through voice command. Additionally, the
devices may be engaged through buttons and scrolling thumbwheels affixed to the
steering wheel or dashboard console, and information may be displayed on
screens incorporated into the dashboard.(Rosenberg 39)
These new advancements are helpful to a certain extent. They assist people by doing the normal
tasks on a cellular device without looking at it, but they still provide that temptation to be
distracted from the road. These new additions to cars can be helpful but when they are still
causing people to become distracted it is not doing what it is supposed to do. Rosenberg believes
that the reason that humans are caused to become distracted is not the physical distraction but the
mental distraction, and it is induced from the limits of humans cognitive resources, because a
person when driving is using their whole brain to consentrate on the road then when the person
looks away from the road at a cellphone it is using some of that cognitive thinking that is needed
to drive and is referred else where.
The problem of distracted driving is very clear to see when it is looked at in the correct
lighting. Distracted driving causes many fatalities, injuries, and collisions in America that can be
avoided by a simple task as putting a cell phone on silent and in a place that can not be seen. It
creates this sense of addiction that needs to be broken. This addiction is growing and will
continue to grow stronger if it is not addressed soon and put to an end. It can start as simply
putting it away when driving, saying something to a driver who glances at a cell phone, or if car

Timothy 7

manufaturers actually want to help end the cause of texting and driving then then start building
cars that can block the cellular service from the phones in the car and this is possible with the
technology that exists now. The problem seems simple but is more complex than imagined, and
America needs to change its habits or addictions or distracted driving will never stop enlarging
across the nation.

Timothy 8

Work Cited
"Cell Phone Use While Driving & Employer Liability." Professional Safety 56.12 (2011): 18-19.
Business Source Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Cheng, Cheng. "Do Cell Phone Bans Change Driver Behavior?." Economic Inquiry 53.3 (2015):
1420-1436. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
"Distracted Driving Problem Extends Beyond Texting." Professional Safety 57.2 (2012): 24.
Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
Rosenberger, Robert. "The Problem With Hands-Free Dashboard Cellphones." Communications
Of The ACM 56.4 (2013): 38-40. Business Source Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Wilson, Fernando A., and Jim P. Stimpson. "Trends In Fatalities From Distracted Driving In The
United States, 1999 To 2008." American Journal Of Public Health100.11 (2010):
2213-2219. Business Source Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
"Young Passengers Least Likely To Speak Up About Distracted Drivers." Professional Safety
57.7 (2012): 20. Business Source Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2016