[Instructor Name]
[Course Number]
[Title]: [Subtitle]
In today’s world, cell phones have become part of everyday life for many American citizens, and a good number of people depend on them to carry out daily operations. With cell phone technology growing rapidly, not only is it becoming more useful than anyone anticipated it to be, but in some cases in can be dangerous and put people’s life at risk. Unfortunately, many of these daily operations occur while driving. Cell phones and driving are like oil and water, they don’t mix well together. The NSC, National Safety Council, annual injury and fatality report, provided that the usage of cell phone causes 26% of the nation’s car accidents. Even though there may be some pros to using your phone while driving, the cons outweigh the pros in this case.
Answering cell phones takes nearly about 3 to 4 seconds. This includes, reaching for the cell phone and seeing whose calling. One might think that picking up the phone is done in an instance, but we have a natural instinct to check who is calling. In these 3 to 4 seconds, while one is not paying attention to the road like they should be, anything can go wrong, and in most cases, it can be fatal. With the growing rate of social networks becoming a part of our everyday life, some people have a fear of “being left out” which means they can’t stand not knowing what’s going on in the world, so they constantly have to be on their phones, even while driving. People should understand that they can wait 5 minutes without being on Facebook or Twitter, etc. because while they’re too busy tampering with their phones, they get distracted and don’t realize what is happening on the road, which can delay their reaction time if an accident were to occur.
Although most people have a hands free mobile device, it has the potential to be every bit a distraction as a standard mobile device. According to a University of Alabama study, researchers analyzed accident and traffic citations for college students who claimed to use hands free mobile devices. Study participants with hands free devices did receive fewer speeding tickets and citations than ordinary hands on mobile device users. Study participants with hands free devices did receive fewer speeding tickets and citations than ordinary hands on mobile device users. In both cases, study participants were equally likely to wind up in car accidents. A Canadian study performed by the University of Calgary states: “… conversation on cell phones, both hand-held and hands free, was found to influence driving performance.” Another study entitled ‘Fatal distraction? A comparison of the cell-phone driver and the drunk driver’ compared the performance of cell-phone drivers and drivers who were legally intoxicated. It states that cell phone drivers may exhibit greater impairments (i.e., more accidents and less responsive behavior).
Using cell phones while driving also reduce the mental capacity of drivers as they fail to concentrate on minor or major activities happening around them. They can forget to put their turn signal light on, run a red light, not steer correctly since one of their hands is occupied by using their phone even though both hands should always be at “10 and 2” as we’ve all been told to do so. The nature of conversation on cell phones during driving differs and can have distinctive impacts on drivers. The complexity of conversation