Cellular Phone Use While Driving: A Death Sentence - Essay Example

This means that each year the roadways grow more dangerous than the year before. So why don't people refrain from using their phones while driving One thing is for certain is that drivers should refrain from using the phone while operating their automobile. There are many studies performed by the Accident Research Unit at the University of Nottingham, as well as the New England Journal of Medicine, which published a study where they found that driving while talking on the phone is as dangerous if not more dangerous than driving while intoxicated.

Brooklyn, Ohio; Hilltown, Conshohocken, and Lebanon, Pennsylvania all have banned the use of cellular phones while driving. Out of the 29 nations encompassed in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), about a fourth of its members, consisting of: Australia, Japan, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, have banned phone usage while driving. On top of this, a large majority of the states in the U.S. either have partially restricted the phone usage, or they are considering it.

Harvard Center for Risk Analysis was commissioned by AT&T Wireless Communications to run a risk-benefit analysis on cellular phone use while driving. They reviewed scientific data most consistent with the times and found that cellular phone use while driving poses a risk to the driver, to other motorists, and to pedestrians (Connelly, 2007). This group also cited that not much information had been researched about this topic prior to this study. Some basic facts were recovered, such as the fact that in 1983 94 million Americans were reported using cellular phones.

Twenty-seven percent of U.S. households reported having at least one member of the house who owned a cellular phone. By 1990 the 94 million who claimed to own cellular devices increased by 40% and then to 61% (Sundeem, 2002). After reviewing an insurmountable number of surveys, they concluded that 80-90% of cellular phone owners use their phones some of the time while driving. The Personal Communications Industry Association evaluated the supposed duration of time people are on the phone while in the car (PCIA, 1999).

Estimates varied for most, but the key factor noticed was the level of uncertainty. A person using the phone in his or her car has the effect of time passing by quickly and unnoticed. This is part of the cellular phone's appeal. But, in a world where people accidentally walk head on into each other talking on their phones and walking, we have to expect the same thing to occur while driving. It is those short seconds of drifting off that result in accidents.With technology vastly growing, we can't help but acknowledge the drastic risk that is beginning to form.

Recently, a study in Canada was conducted in which 699 Canadian drivers were found to have a collision rate four times higher when using a cellular phone (Wikipedia, 2006). In The New England Journal of Medicine, they reported that drivers who use cellular phones in the act of driving are four times more likely to crash than those who don't (Wikipedia, 2006). This estimate is equal to drunk drivers who have a blood alcohol content of 0.01.The government has begun to step in and counter this rising threat.

In January 2007 the Center