Banning the Use of Cellular Telephone Devices while Driving - Essay Example

Running Head: The NEED TO BAN THE USE OF CELLULAR TELEPHONE DEVICES WHILE DRIVING The Need to Ban the Use of Cellular Telephone Devices while Driving Michael Warner DeVry University Online ENGL112 Composition Tony Hays Aug 10, 2008 Introduction In the United States, there is a lack of uniformity when it comes to the regulation on banning the use of cell phones while driving. Among the states that has successfully passed a law that bans the use of mobile devices while driving includes: California, Connecticut, and District of Columbia among others. (Cell Phone Driving Laws by State, 2007) Despite the importance of banning the use of cell phones while driving, there are still a lot of states that failed to acknowledge the need for legislative act. The purpose of this study is to persuade the readers with regards to the importance of banning the use of cell phone while driving. Thesis Statement “The Need to Ban the Use of Cellular Telephone devices while Driving.” Reasons for the Need to Ban the Use of Cell Phone while Driving One of the main reasons why drivers should not be allowed to use cell phones while driving is to prevent the incidence of car accidents. In line with this matter, a study shows that there is a strong correlation between the use of cell phone devices and risk of collusion while driving. (Redelmeier & Tibshirani, 1997) Since the use of mobile devices while driving could significantly distract the attention and clear vision of the drivers, the number of individuals who experience death and serious physical injuries from car accident remains high each year. Use of Cell Phones can cause Distraction while Driving The use of cell phones could significantly cause distraction on drivers while driving. In line with this matter, the research study that was conducted by Utah Psychologists reveal that individuals who have formed the habit of using their mobile phones while driving is similar to 0.08 percent of alcohol intoxication in blood which could impair the drivers’ ability to drive. (The University of Utah, 2006) For this reason, either the use of hands-free or handheld cell phones has been equally considered a major cause of distraction on the driving performance of each driver. Based on the actual experiment that was conducted by Strayer, Drews, & Johnston (2003) with regards to the use of hands-free cell phone and driving, mobile conversation could impair the drivers’ reaction to vehicles in-front of them because of inattention blindness. Given the fact that cell phone conversation could also impair the explicit recognition memory of the driver for road signs and billboards (Strayer, Drews, & Johnston, 2003), there is a strong possibility that the driver who is experiencing a temporary impaired vision would crash on the car that suddenly stops in front on him. The same result was concluded in the study of Strayer & Drews (2007) in Cell-Phone – Induced Driver Distraction such that the use of mobile devices while driving could negatively affect the durable memory of the driver on objects that can be found on the road. In the process of discussing the negative impact of using cell phone while driving, the authors provided sufficient evidences that having a conversation on cell phone could often lead to inattention blindness. The driving experience of each individual varies from one to another. Some people will have more driving experience than other people. Since most of the adolescents have just started learning how to drive as compared to the adults, several studies suggest that adolescents who have just taken a driving lesson are the ones who can be easily distracted by talking with the use of a hand-held phone, sending and/or reading text messages. (Foss et al., 2008) Aside from the differences in level of driving experience of each individual, it is given that some people have a better concentration while driving as compared to others. As compared to individuals who were not diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), several studies show that drivers with ADHD has four times higher risk to motor vehicle injuries caused by car crash due to lack of sleep or inattentiveness caused by hyperactivity. (Murphy & Kwasnick, 2005) For this reason, motor vehicle accidents like highway crashes is considered as the major cause of death among the adolescents between the age brakets of 15 to 20 years old. Use of Cell Phones while Driving can Lead to Serious Physical Injuries Car accidents caused by the use of mobile devices could lead to serious physical injuries. Back in 2005, 48,441 unintentional accident injuries that occurred in the U.S. are related to transportation accidents. (Kung et al., 2008) Out of the 48,441 unintentional accident injuries, as high as 23.3% and 15.77% of the injured individuals belong the the age brackets of 15 to 24 and 25 to 34 years old respectively. Based on the report of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2006), approximately 30,000 individuals who have been seriously injured in a car accident requires the need to be hospitalized. Aside from the need to consider the social and economic consequences of being hospitalized, most of the serious car accidents could even lead to serious limbs, skull or head fractures, soft tissue injury in thr thoracic and/or lumbar spine, chronic headache as well as neck and low back pain. (Abbassian & Giddins, 2008) The problem with having limb, skull, and/or head fracture is that the victim may end up experiencing some physical pain associated with these injuries as the reach an old age. In case the victim’s spinal cord has been injured, there is a huge possibility that the victim’s mobility could suffer if the physical damages remain unreversible. As part of having a serious physical injury, car accidents could cause the victims to undergo the need to amputate either an upper- and/or lower-limb. (Anchor, 2006) Amputating either upper- or lower-limb could cause the victim not only to lose their mobility but also decreases their self-confidence which could result to self-pity and low self-esteem. Use of Cell Phones while Driving Increases the Rate of Fatality Car accidents caused by the use of mobile devices add up to the number of fatality rate throughout the United States. In line with this matter, as much as 43,667 had been reported to have lost their lives due to motor vehicle accidents back in 2005. (Kung et al., 2008) Even though the life expectancy of people in the U.S. is 77.8 years, approximately 12 million adolescent drivers who had a serious car accident accounted for the 14% of fatal car crash back in 2004. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2005) On the other hand, the formal report that was published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the number of fatal vehicle crashes that occurred in the United States has significantly increased from 38,444 in 2004 to 39,189 in 2005. (Car-Accidents, 2008) The high number of car accident cases only proves that the use of cell phones while driving should be banned by the US government. Conclusion There are many possible causes of car accidents. One of these factors include the use of cell phone devices while driving. In line with this matter, the authors of several past studies agree that there is a strong relationship between the use of cell phones and driving distractions. For this reason, the use of mobile phone devices could significantly increase the risk of the drivers to encounter incidence of car accidents. The victims of car accidents related with the use of mobile phone devices makes the victim suffer from a long list of social, health, and economic problems. First, serious car accidents may require the need for hospitalization which can be very expensive. Second, serious physical damanges or injuries from a car accident could cause a lot of physical pain on the part of the victim as he/she reaches an old age. Due to low self-esteem and extreme emotional disturbances, the need to amputate either upper- or lower-limb could cause the victim to lose their interest in maintaining a good social relationship with their friends and love ones. In worst case scenario, serious car accident caused by the use of cell phones could even lead to unncessary loss of human lives. Since the U.S. does not have a uniform rule with regards to the regulation on making the use of cell phones while driving illegal, each one of us should convince the U.S. government to carefully study this issue in order to prevent the negative consequences associated with the high incidence of car accidents in the country. References Abbassian, A., & Giddins, G. E. (2008, June 27). Subacromial impingement in patients with whiplash injury to the cervical spine. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research: http://www.josr-online.com/content/3/1/25. Anchor, P. F. (2006, May 19). Recovering From Amputation After Serious Car Accident. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from WorldNow and KLAS: http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=4923571. Car-Accidents. (2008). Fatal Car Accident Statistics. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from Car-Accidents: http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/fatal-accident-statistics.html. Cell Phone Driving Laws by State. (2007, December 10). Retrieved July 30, 2008, from AOL Mobile: http://mobile1.aol.com/mobilearticle/_a/cell-phone-driving-laws-by-state/20080304100509990002 Foss, R. D., Goodwin, A. H., McCartt, A. T., & Hellinga, L. A. (2008, May). Short-term effects of a teenage driver cell phone restriction. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: http://www.iihs.org/research/topics/pdf/r1106.pdf. Kung, H.-C., Murphy, S. L., Hoyert, D. L., & Xu, J. (2008, April 24). National Vital Statistics Reports. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_10.pdf. Murphy, B. R., & Kwasnick, D. (2005, July). AD/HD and Driving. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from National Resource Center for AD/HD: http://www.help4adhd.org/en/living/parenting/driving. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2006, January). A Compilation of Motor Vehicle Crash Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the General Estimates System. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSFAnn/2004HTML/TSF2004.htm. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2005). Traffic Safety Facts. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810630.PDF. Redelmeier, D. A., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1997, February 13). Association between Cellular-Telephone Calls and Motor Vehicle Collisions. Retrieved July 28, 2008, from The New England Journal of Medicine : http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/336/7/453. Strayer, D. L., & Drews, F. A. (2007). Cell-Phone–Induced Driver Distraction. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from Department of Psychology - University of Utah: http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/cdir.pdf. Strayer, D. L., Drews, F. A., & Johnston, W. A. (2003, August 22). Inattention-blindness behind the wheel. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from Journal of Vision: http://www.journalofvision.org/3/9/157/. The University of Utah. (2006, June 29). Drivers on Cell Phones Are as Bad as Drunks. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from U News Center: http://unews.utah.edu/p/?r=062206-1. Read More