Using Cell Phones while Driving - Coursework Example

“Using Cell Phones while Driving?” Introduction Technological telecommunications advancement in the past twentieth century has seen the introduction of cellular phone as a versatile and adaptable gadget for communication. While cellular technology is innovatory gadget of communication rather than for transportation, their potential effect on the transportation sector is of a sizeable magnitude. Today worldwide, the possibility of over twenty million automobile operators having a one-touch dial opportunity to place a phone call, receive or send a short email or message while on the steering wheel is not a phenomena that easily escapes the eye. The use of cell phone on the roads has become so popular amongst motorist, to support this research findings conducted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) into the Cellular Communications Sector indicate that more than a high number as 100 million U.S motorists are using cell phone gadgets while driving and that any given moment of the day 8 percent of motorists are talking or using the phone, (Safety) similar sentiments are also held by Goepel, who also reports that for 20years, cell phones have been available to us and that the use of the gadget is now everywhere, with an approximated 500, 000 drivers for passenger vehicles using the cell phone at any given time of the day. (Goepel) Cell phones play a significant role in our everyday life. However, the life simplicity that these gadgets bring must always be at all time a subject of judgment against the risk that they pose. Their increased use in automobiles generally lead to high chances of inattentive driving due to other activities as receiving a phone call while driving, eating or even attending to child in the car (Burnett, Tetlock and Hahn), other research work by Aaron also suggests that drivers while using cellular phones become distracted by acts such as dialing, having phone conversation or perhaps most common is the presence of these cellular gadgets in their hands while trying to negotiate a sharp corner or trying to engage in unnecessary driving maneuvers. (Aaron) World over, there are around 40 countries that have prohibitions or restrictions for use of mobile phones while driving especially the hand held phones while on the road. (Safety). Proponents of prohibitions related to using a hand held phone while driving argue that the distractions that are associated with use of the phone have higher implications than driving distractions as eating and attending to children. Their arguments are based on the premise that using the cell phone while driving require much and continuous concentration of the eyes and mind away from the main road. Equally, those that are against the cell phone restrictions argue plainly that all drivers require knowledge and education on all effect of a driver’s distractions and enforcement of relevant laws that pertain to driving. In other studies, driving with the cell phone has been compared to being as dangerous as drunk driving. Of significance is a study conducted by Janet Froetscher, CEO of National Safety Council (NSC) who says that, “Studies show that driving while talking is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times risk of a crash,” she further adds that, “Driving drunk is also dangerous and against the law. When our friends have been drinking, we take away the keys. It is time to take away the cell phone.” (Staff) The NSC statements further exposes that similar studies conducted by Harvard Centre of Risk Analysis that 6 percent of deaths due to road crashes are contributed by cell phone use while driving, an approximation of about 636,000 crashes, injuries being 330,000, 12,000 more medical serious injuries and approximate 2,600 deaths annually with $43 billion tab. (Staff) Jonathan Adkins, Spokesman representing Governors Highway Safety Association of Washington, DC clearly demonstrates the dangers associated with driving while talking on the phone and summaries that the act taxes cognitive ability of one’s brain neglecting hand driving and at times when the content of the conversation is unpleasant and stressful, the hand’s reaction time will be slowed moreover, the person on the other side of the conversation do not understand the environment one is nor what is talking place around that person, whereas a passenger in the vehicle is present in the car and fully informed of the circumstances. (Staff) Cell phone use and safety Use of cell phones in cars makes life better, convenient and safe: the people perform various tasks easily while using cell phones, coordination of work and family issues becomes easier, parents and guardians are able to regularly check on the progress of their children, motorists that who are stranded in the highway are able to call for help, and most often people are able to report cases of traffic blockages, accident cases and even fire while on the highway to the nearest traffic police division for help; it is thus quite impossible to relate these enormous benefits to any measure. Quite unnoticed a lot of traffic cases are reported over the roads with the help of a cell phone. (Burnett, Tetlock and Hahn). Goepel also goes further to add that the use of a cell phone is not all that hazardous, he comments when properly used, cell phones can serve as a source of security when one is in the car, he provides examples in situations where cell phones can be used to provide directions, or during need of Emergency Road Service (ERS) just to mention a few instances of how useful the gadget can be. (Goepel) But even with these enormous benefits, it goes without mentioning that Cell phone use while driving is still causing accidents and one would often ask, are Cell phones really distractions? With varied studies on the subject matter, others suggest that dialing or answering of phone calls while driving distracts driver’s attention thus leading to increased accident rates, others also reveal that the actual conversation act is the main cause especially those conversations that tend to be emotionally provoking, still other studies hold onto the argument that while drivers are busy driving, their attention are more distracted to activities that occur inside the car including eating, engaging in conversation with passengers or trying to switch between radio stations. (Michon) Cell phone and Road Accidents Over the last decade, many research studies have been conducted to elucidate the connection between the uses of cell phone while driving and to quantify these numbers. One such study relates the chances of getting a road accident and the usage of a cell phone. The research concludes that motorists are likely to get into accidents four times while using their cell phone when driving. According to the study conducted by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety for drivers in Perth, Australia, banning will not improve the situation as drivers will switch to hands-free cell phones. (Safety) A more interesting research study in April 2004 by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the NHTSA revealed that 80 percent of the crashes and another 65 percent of the near-crashes were involving a form of driver inattention within a very short duration of three seconds of the accident. The study went further to rank the main causes or road accidents; cell phone distraction was ranked highest, immediately followed by driver’s drowsiness. (Safety) Suggested Solutions With the foregoing discussions it becomes quite imperative that appropriate measures are needed to control this high rate of common accidents as a result of cell phone use. Regulatory mechanism can be adopted to curb the accidents. In more recent times, the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) on December 2011 proposed that state institute legal mechanism that bar drivers from using the cell phone while driving (Hahn). (Crawley) Also reports that the National Transport Safety Board of the U.S recommended for a ‘Nationwide ban on texting and cell phone use while driving.’ Restriction through legislation on the use of cell phone while driving has been applied in many economies including Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Russia and even Switzerland just to mention a few countries, in the U.S, the bill has been up for debates in the Senate and the House with a view of banning the use of a cell phone while one is driving, with New York having successfully passed the law. (Goepel) Perhaps among many states within U.S several bans have also been applied with regards to using of cell phones while driving. In New York for instance, the judicial systems allows “primary enforcement of an offence” implying that traffic highway police officers have a jurisdiction to pull one over for using cell phone while driving. (Michon) Also in Washington, DC text messaging are banned for any driver and one could be charged with primary offence for texting (Michon) and (Webalect) Secondly, developing an appropriate technology that would automatically hinder drivers from receiving a call or sending a message while driving also reduces risks of accidents; this is intended to limit interruption by a way of limiting service or network availability while someone is driving. A case in point is already a technology in the market that deactivates ringtones and message alert and sends voice calls to a mail box when a cell phone rings in a moving vehicle. (Hahn) Among these technologies that could work to reduce the road accidents as a result of cell phone use include designing and availing products that can eliminate texting while one is driving, using multimedia messaging technology while driving, emailing, and viewing multimedia files while driving. (Webalect) Other remedies include but not limited to business organizations prohibiting their employees from transacting any business while driving. Examples in question are the Exxon Mobil and shell that have a work policy that prohibits drivers receiving phone call during working hours. Another emerging control concept is the Manufacturer and employers taking liability for accident that occur to their workers during official working hours when conducting organization’s business while driving. Court decisions have also compelled manufacturing of cell phones to pay victims of accident for failure to warn consumers of such likelihood of happenings when using the product while driving. (Safety) Similar opinions are held by Aaron when he argues that some organizations cause accidents to their employees when employees are required to engage in work related phone conversations while driving and therefore these organizations have in many instances being held responsible for the accidents that their employees had been exposed to, and for this organizations have put in place policies that guard against the use of cellular phone while engaging in driving related organizational duties. (Aaron) To further enhance safety and the use of cell phones, Anne De Vago, spokeswoman for California Highway Patrol puts across that, “The primary job of the driver is safety. If you must make an extended phone call, pull off the road and park in a safe place.” With this she recommends that one needs to full be aware that driving requires one’s full attention, before one gets into any car it is important that one gets familiar with all a phone’s features, one needs to use the phone only when it is safe to do so, and that if the phone call is emergency ask your passenger to receive it on your behalf or make the conversation and short and brief as you can while avoiding distracting conversations over the phone. (Goepel) As one of the remedies, Aaron proposes the idea of hands-free phone while driving as opposed to hand-held. He however, opposes the idea by asserting that in as much as some states have successfully implanted he hands-free technique, there exists scanty of evidence to confirm that the methodology is indeed safer with cases of drivers having accidents also being reported when either of the methods are used. (Aaron) To confirm Aaron’s fears of hands-free driving, a similar research conducted by University of Utah demonstrates that hands free calling do not make driving safer while another interesting study compares the risk involved when a driver talks to a passenger and when the driver talks uses cell phone conversations, the research conclusively admits that talking to passengers makes drivers safe since passengers help driver to detect and avert potential risks. (Staff) The issue of Hands-free driving seems to be viewed differently by other authors’ a part from Live Science Staff, also in support of un-safeness of the device and related accessories is (Michon) who argues further that many drivers spend much time trying to fiddle with the phone’s earpiece of their hands free device than they would have done dialing the phone and that a large volume of distractions have been documented to support that hands free are a true distractions to driving. Against a popular belief that devices such as Bluetooth that transmit microphone though the phone could be safest, Michon maintains that these devices still presents safety challenges when compared to hand held cell phones. (Michon) The author therefore also proposes a number of safety measures to follow when having a cell phone in a car, these include, only making calls when the car is stationery, avoid making calls in bad weather or during heavy traffic, mastering frequently called numbers into phones memory so that the dialing time is reduced for minimal destruction, not putting the phone a distant that you cannot reach, when it becomes necessary that you pull over to make a phone conversation avoid crowd places and lock the car doors, if it also becomes necessary to write messages pull over from the main highway, and if it becomes extremely necessary that you receive or make a phone call while driving hold the phone above the eye level so that the road is clear and visible to you (Michon) same sentiments shared by (Goepel) It would also be prudent to mention that efforts to ban or control using phones may seem unachievable especially in the face of infrastructural mechanisms required. Weinstein argues that police admits that enforcing these laws are problematic as it is occasioned by lack of enough manpower and a driver has to be caught in the act. Weinstein holds the opinion that recent studies have revealed that ‘distracted’ driving is to blame for many accidents with cell phone use only accounting for a smaller percentage and thus concludes that legislative mechanisms should be geared towards preventing general ‘distractive’ driving than cell phone use as loop holes emerge where the issue shifts to being a “political hay than a public safety.” (weinstein) Works Cited Aaron, Lason. "Expert Law." 2005. Cellular Phone Use and Auto Accidents. 13 March 2012 . Burnett, Jason, Robert Tetlock and Paul Hahn. Ban Cell Phones in Cars. 29 December 2000. Cato Institute. 12 March 2012 . Crawley, John. "The Christian Science Monitor." National Ban on cell phone use, recomends.13 December 2011. 12 March 2012 . Goepel, John. "Via Magazine." Driving, Accidents anf your cell phone. June 2003. 13 March 2012 . Hahn, Robert. "Cato Institute." Ban Cell phone in cars? 5 March 2012 . Michon, Kathleen. "Nolo." Cell Phones, Texting and Driving: State Laws. 13 March 2012 . Safety, Insurance Institute of Highway. "Cell Phones and Driving." January 2012. Insurance Information Institute. 12 March 2012 . Staff, Live Science. "Live Science." 12 January 2009. Should Cell Phones be Banned while Driving? 13 March 2012 . Webalect. "Drive Safely Corporation." 2009. Helping us to drive safely-Stop texting while driving-the problem. 13 March 2012 >. weinstein, lauren. "Wired." 12 september 2002. Cell phone ban not a good ban. 13 March 2012 . Read More