Argumentative Essay On Cell Phones While Driving

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Driving Smart
At any given moment of daylight, it is estimated that 660,000 Americans are using electronic devices while driving (Halsey). It has been determined that using a cell phone while driving has the same effect as the legal blood alcohol limit of .08 percent which creates a scary outcome (“Cell Phones and Driving”). Having over 660,000 practically drunk or distracted drivers on the road makes it unsafe for anyone. If something isn’t done soon, the number of fatalities will continue to rise. Education should be used to reduce the number of deaths caused by distracted driving because drivers are still unaware of all of its dangers, current laws are not effective enough, and simulators have been proven to be very effective in educating drivers. One reason that education is the best way to combat distracted driving is that people are unaware of all of its dangers. Many drivers understand that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous, but are unaware that cell phones are only one of many things that can distract a driver. Defined in “Traffic Safety Facts”, distracted driving is a type of inattention that occurs when drivers divert their attention from the driving task to focus on some other activity (“Traffic Safety Facts”). This means that just because a driver chooses to put down their cell phone, they can unknowingly still be putting themselves, loved ones, and other drivers at risk. Drivers need to be educated, so they begin to make the decision of staying away from all distractions. Some may argue that people already know that distracted driving is a danger. Ad campaigns like At&t’s, “It Can Wait”, have educated drivers to the consequences of using a phone while driving. As stated in the article “Why We Can’t Stop”, a federal survey showed that 94 percent of Americans think that it should be illegal to text and drive (Neyfakh). This survey shows that drivers are already educated and are just choosing to ignore that knowledge. What this argument fails to address is that these campaigns only educate drivers on the dangers of texting and driving. While texting does account for a large portion of distracted driving, there are many other forms. Stated in the Traffic Safety Facts article, 12 percent of fatalities in distraction- affected crashes included the use of a cell phone (“Traffic Safety Facts”). This percentage proves that drivers are undereducated on how dangerous activities such as eating, dressing, gawking ect. are just as dangerous as using a cellular device. A Second argument to why education should be used to limit distracted driving is that current laws are not working. Similarly to how many drivers chose not to buckle up, many are choosing to do the same thing with cell phone usage. Shown by a study done at the University of West Virginia School of Public Health, laws probably aren’t making much of an impact on the number of injuries caused by distracted driving (“Laws, Education Not Enough”). While governments are focusing on making laws to
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According to Janet Brooking, executive director of Drive Smart Virginia, “The simulation is extremely valuable because it affords the opportunity to work directly with new drivers before they develop dangerous habits” (MacDonald). If the simulator can end these habits of texting and using a cell phone while driving before they even begin, it is the best long term solution. Some opponents to education would counter this argument with the idea that adults who have been educated before they began to drive still choose to drive with distractions. One statistic states that 40 percent of drivers between the ages of 19 and 39 say they text while they drive (Halsey). There would be no reason to pour large amounts of money into these simulators when drivers are still going to ignore the facts. To refute this idea, supporters would state that simulators give a different kind of education hasn’t been available before. The simulator isn’t a textbook; it gives students the opportunity to be exposed to the potentially fatal dangers of texting and driving without actually having to put their life in danger (MacDonald). When drivers are exposed to the life threatening situations, many of them will choose not to drive distracted when they are actually behind the

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