Should Cellphones Be Banned While Driving_modified

Why cell phones should never been used while driving This is the age of technology everybody is connected to everybody, the internet has a wall of information about everybody and the strides that communications have taken since the last decade are enormous and enormous. In this fast age of quick communication there is one boon that stands out of the crowd and yet is an implicit part of the crowd, the mobile phone. Although the mobile phone has been around for quite some time now, but it was not until the last decade that the fad of owning a mobile and the necessity of using one has come into force. While there is no doubt that the device is a wonderful means of wireless communication, it has an enigma attached to it, the enigma of using a mobile phone while driving. It is nowadays a common scene to see people using their mobile phones while driving, they text while at the wheel or talk to people while driving, this has lead to a scary situation on the whole. Since people using mobiles while driving not only puts them in danger but also the person they may happen to be in an accident with, it is a very grave situation to be taken into account. Every morning one can find a many articles related to road accidents that happened because someone was busy using their phone while driving. The situation is saddening and is getting worse day by day. Although mobile is a very ‘mobile’ form of communication but its use while driving just seems to be unwarranted many research papers have quoted that a lot of people use mobile phones while driving. A lot of groups including the wireless communications industry and transportation safety groups have initiated educational campaigns that encourage the discreet use of mobiles while driving. Using the mobile while driving may result into some serious consequences for the drivers, collisions may result in minor to serious injuries and can sometimes prove to be deadly. Accidents result into damage to life and property not only for the one who is driving but also to the one happens to be in accident with the driver. The focus on

road shifts while talking on the phone, at high speeds and increasing traffic day by day the concentration level needed to drive safely on the road in also increasing day by day, in such a scenario one can’t be distracted while on the road, using mobile phone while driving is one such cause of distraction. Sometimes we search for the phone, reach for the phone, after receiving hold it to our ears, pick up the phone if it drops down all while driving, our focus gets divided in such situations. These myriad tasks take our energy and put it into handling the phone rather than handling the vehicle being driven. Some people might argue that if people use hands free mode or headphones while driving and the situation will not be grim, but the fact is talking to someone need our thoughtful response which means that mental energy is spent on the talk, thus distracting the drivers from the road, especially at high speeds when complete undivided attention is necessary as even the slightest of errors may cause severe consequences, moreover using the headphones are not a solution as it impairs our hearing ability making us unable to hear the discreet movements of traffic around us. Some research into driving while using mobile phones has led to a comparison between driving while using mobile phone as dangerous as driving under influence of alcohol1; drivers who use a handheld device are four times more likely to get into an accident serious enough to cause injury. The risk to general public is serious, especially the pedestrians, they don’t have any protection around them and one looses balance of the while and rams into them, there are very high chances of high risk injuries to them. At any time during the daylight more than 800,000 vehicles in the United States are being driven by someone using a handheld cell phone, according to research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration2. The National Safety Council calculate approximately that in a recent year, 21% of motor vehicle crashes involved talking on either a

handheld or hands free cell phone. The figure in numbers is even grimmer 21% crashes comes to a figure of 1,100,000 automobile crashes. Cell phones cause late reactions, especially those that are hand held, some people build the habit to overcome their reflexes and spontaneous reaction to certain situations, which result into atrocious circumstances in traffic and especially to pedestrians. Mobiles are even more distractive when one uses to it to text while driving, because it engages not only our ears and mind but also our eyes, in absence of visual stimulus while driving a serious accident is always in the offing. Ninety-eight percent of the drivers that AT&T, one of the largest wireless communication services providers polled in a recent survey said they understood the dangers of texting while driving. Despite the fact that almost all drivers surveyed by AT&T said texting and driving was dangerous, 43 percent of teenage drivers said they still did it, while 49 percent of older commuters admitted the same4. Researchers have also found that using a hands free device is not necessarily safer than using a handheld phone. Many drivers spend more time fiddling with headphones and volume also creates distraction, some believe that devices like Bluetooth headsets may be a safe way to go for mobile use while driving as the device requires minimalistic inputs from the user, however as mentioned earlier, talking is an engaging activity for the senses and the hazards are very significant if one gets diverted from the road. In light of the situations stated above the obvious answer seems to be that there is an urgent need to standardize regulations regarding cell phone use while driving. In 2009 CBS News talked about a report saying that about one in twenty accidents in the United States involves a driver talking on a cell phone. This number will definitely rise as the number of cell phone users is rising exponentially. Even though the statistics are clear and up close with the facts, there is still yet to be a bill passed that eliminates the use of cell phones across all states, as of now only a

handful of states have laws regarding the use of cell phone while driving which in themselves seem unsuccessful in curbing such incidents. Many people on the corollary think that such a federal bill would only decrease their freedom more than the government already has. The legislative action in states varies greatly; no state bans the usage of cell phones while driving completely. Ten states have banned the usage of handheld cell phones while many others impose restrictions on certain ways to use a cell phone but no heavy penalties are imposed in case of the law being broken. Moreover due to varied tenacity of the applicable laws across various states sometimes people are bound to break them unwillingly, standardizing a law prohibiting the usage of cell phones completely would help alleviate this problem. There are organizations urging for change in attitude towards using cell phone and driving however the general public just doesn’t seem to be bothered very much about the increasingly alarming situation. There is a website called the hands free info that reports daily on the nation’s legislation regarding cell phone usage while driving, another one is Driven to Distraction Task Force of Washington State that urges for change and more wide penetration of the topic. A standardized law into banning the usage of cell phones while driving would result in lesser distractions on road which in turn would cause lesser road accidents, lives will be saved, there will be less expenditure on medical bills, insurance for the people and vehicles, a lot of tax payers’ money would be saved and there will be more uniformity in the understanding and following of the law. Such a law could create a culture of responsibility, more serious punishments would lead to lesser violations on the road and safer driving, and the most important implication of such law would be that while driving the American motorists could be assured that they would be involved in accidents involving distracted driving. Enforcing such legislation would deter people from mindlessly using their cell phones while driving. According to a study of human brain performed by Carnegie Mellon

University has already opined that listening to a cell phone conversation reduces brain activity by 37%, these are activities associated to driving. There can be also be misappropriations related to such a law, like reporting a high speed pursuit, or dialing the emergency response while someone’s under medical, physical or emotional duress but the benefits are far more than the problems and hence such a standardized law seems to be the need of the hour. The debate over the safety of driving while using mobile has made many countries and individual states in some countries ban the use of mobiles while driving, individuals in their personal level can make an effort to improve personal safety by choosing not use phone while driving, this would not only create a safety for the driver but also to the fellow travelers. Despite the growing dependency on cell phone use, the regulations regarding the use of cell phones while driving needs to be standardized, the safety of millions, not just the ones driving the vehicles but also the pedestrians. There are always going to be people who will protest against such a regulation and fail to open their minds but in the end such a law needs to be adopted for better road safety and accident prevention.

References 1. Strayer, D.L., Drews, F.A., and Crouch, D.L. A comparison of the cell phone driver and the drunk driver. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2006 (Summer), 381-391; Collet, C., et al. Phoning while driving I: a review of epidemiological, psychological, behavioural and physiological studies. Ergonomics, 2010, 53(5), 589-601.

2. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Policy Statement and Compiled FAQs on Distracted Driving. nhtsa.gov/Driving+Safety/Distracted+Driving/Policy+Statement+and+Compiled+FAQs+ on+Distracted+Driving 3. National Safety Council. Annual Estimate of Cell Phone Crashes 2010. 2012. nsc.org/safety_road/Distracted_Driving/Documents/Attributable%20Risk%20Summary.p df 4. AT&T Website http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=23181 5. Lissy, Cohen, Park & Graham (2000) Cellular Phone Use While Driving: Risks and Benefits http://www.nsc.org/news_resources/Resources/Documents/Cellular%20Phone%20Use% 20While%20Driving,%20Risk%20and%20Benefits.pdf