Texting While Driving - Research Paper Example

The irony in the story notwithstanding the lesson is clear that texting while driving is a dangerous practice and the more one does it the more likely they are to end up in a crash. Taking cognizance of the fact that driving by itself is dangerous, allowing texting, which has been proven to increase ones chances of losing control of a vehicle, is illogical, irresponsible and different from allowing drunk driving. Each day 15 people are killed while over 1200 are injured in car crashes that involve a distracted driver, whereby these distractions involve taking one’s eyes of the road, hands of the wheel or focusing on something else besides driving.

What do all this distractions have in common is that any driver driving and texting will have to engage in at least one or all of these distractions at some point during the writing; the more they text, the more likely they are to veer off the road or hit another car, pedestrian or object. In this paper, it will be proven through research and statistical data as well as logical reasoning that texting while driving is a dangerous practice that needs to be curbed with all urgency. Due to the increased availability of mobile phones and other hand held devices; texting and driving has been on the increase in the last few years; studies have attested to the increasing number of accidents related to texting.

Statistics reveal that in the year 2009 more than 54,000 people died, as a result of distractions while driving with 240 000 being injured as a result of the same (“Injury Prevention & Control…"). This resulted to AAA launching a campaign to ensure that texting and driving were outlawed in all the American states without exemption in an effort to mitigate the often-dire consequences of texting while driving (AAA). They registered a considerable level of success since after the ban was implemented in California, the percentage of drivers texting went down by approximately 70 percent (AAA).

In June 2012 a Massachusetts teen was sentenced to serve one year in jail for involvement in deadly car while writing a text, under the new state laws that criminalize injuring someone while texting and driving (Conan). In ten American States, talking on hand held devices are not allowed while 32 ban cellphone usage by novice drivers, while 39 have banned texting and driving. It is worth noting that more states have banned texting while driving than taking and receiving calls by both seasoned and novice drivers; this is because with time people are realizing how fatal the simple action of sending a text can be.

Ironically, the texts are often inconsequential messages that were not necessarily urgent such as a discussion about what one had for lunch or sharing jokes; thus it begs the question whether such trivial interactions are worth risking life and limb. Texting while driving has been proven seriously impair the drivers reaction speed on road, considering that drivers often have to make split second decisions which at time involve life and death, this poses a consummate risk to themselves and other or road user in their way.

Consider a study carried out at the Texas Transportation Institute; 42 drivers were asked to drive while texting on an 11 mile test track and they were required to stop when they saw a flashing light, the experiment was also done when they were not texting. The researchers recorded the reaction times in the different cases, and according to this study, drivers