Sabrina Rodriguez
Professor Thomas Korson
English 1A
30 November 2017
Distractions Can Wait There has always been a reiteration on reckless driving over countless years yet there is still an incomprehensible amount of drivers that neglect to follow the laws of the road. Although while driving under the influence of any substance has been a spotlight issue, it has overshadowed the growing threat to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians that is disregarded by drivers and pardoned far too often by law enforcement. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had estimated in surveys that a total of 660,000 people are actively using an electronic device on any given day while driving, which reflects back onto the number of people that think …show more content…
In the article “Can a Law Stop Distracted Driving? California Hopes to Find Out” by Jonah Engel Bromwich, he discusses how Jerry Brown took it a step further than most states with the approval of this law because of the fact that it strictly prohibits drivers from holding their cell phones while driving. Now, the Assembly Bill of California adds to the vehicle code section 23123.5 that phones cannot be held while driving but mounted in front of the drivers in a range where they are able to operate it with one single gesture. Yet today, there are still people guilty of breaking that law as research shows that 1 out of 6 minutes while driving is spent engaging in some sort of activity on the phone (“The Gut-Wrenching Truth”). Though the updated law has been active since January first of 2017, commuters have yet to adhere to it which raises the concern of what exactly it is going to take for people to stop making this reckless decision. If they do not value their own lives enough to make a change then it is no question that the potential risks would change their minds …show more content…
Considering the new law that was just passed, it is evident California has taken one of the strictest approaches to the issue of distracted driving. Cambridge Mobile Telematics’ (CMT) conducted a study of driving behaviors this year and through the data collected by their mobile app, it was concluded that “phone distractions occurred during 52 percent of trips that resulted in crashes”. The studies that have been conducted in the last few years continue to prove how relentless drivers are when it comes to adhering to the adjustments made to further specify on previous legislations against distracted driving. CMT’s study article went on to mention how The National Safety Council (NSC) reported that “the number of fatalities on U.S. roads rose by 14 percent since 2015, [being] the largest two-year increase in five decades”. This is no surprise as the data that was reported showed that states with the stricter laws only barely affected how much more of a safer driver the people in their states were than the states without those laws. Even when results show exactly how often hands-on distraction is actually occurring during a commute, drivers will still insist that the whole situation was an “accident” once they are involved and held accountable for a collision, fatal or not,
Professor Thomas Korson
English 1A
30 November 2017
Distractions Can Wait There has always been a reiteration on reckless driving over countless years yet there is still an incomprehensible amount of drivers that neglect to follow the laws of the road. Although while driving under the influence of any substance has been a spotlight issue, it has overshadowed the growing threat to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians that is disregarded by drivers and pardoned far too often by law enforcement. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had estimated in surveys that a total of 660,000 people are actively using an electronic device on any given day while driving, which reflects back onto the number of people that think …show more content…
In the article “Can a Law Stop Distracted Driving? California Hopes to Find Out” by Jonah Engel Bromwich, he discusses how Jerry Brown took it a step further than most states with the approval of this law because of the fact that it strictly prohibits drivers from holding their cell phones while driving. Now, the Assembly Bill of California adds to the vehicle code section 23123.5 that phones cannot be held while driving but mounted in front of the drivers in a range where they are able to operate it with one single gesture. Yet today, there are still people guilty of breaking that law as research shows that 1 out of 6 minutes while driving is spent engaging in some sort of activity on the phone (“The Gut-Wrenching Truth”). Though the updated law has been active since January first of 2017, commuters have yet to adhere to it which raises the concern of what exactly it is going to take for people to stop making this reckless decision. If they do not value their own lives enough to make a change then it is no question that the potential risks would change their minds …show more content…
Considering the new law that was just passed, it is evident California has taken one of the strictest approaches to the issue of distracted driving. Cambridge Mobile Telematics’ (CMT) conducted a study of driving behaviors this year and through the data collected by their mobile app, it was concluded that “phone distractions occurred during 52 percent of trips that resulted in crashes”. The studies that have been conducted in the last few years continue to prove how relentless drivers are when it comes to adhering to the adjustments made to further specify on previous legislations against distracted driving. CMT’s study article went on to mention how The National Safety Council (NSC) reported that “the number of fatalities on U.S. roads rose by 14 percent since 2015, [being] the largest two-year increase in five decades”. This is no surprise as the data that was reported showed that states with the stricter laws only barely affected how much more of a safer driver the people in their states were than the states without those laws. Even when results show exactly how often hands-on distraction is actually occurring during a commute, drivers will still insist that the whole situation was an “accident” once they are involved and held accountable for a collision, fatal or not,