...THE PERILS OF TEXTING Cell phones have become a staple of modern society. Nearly everyone has them, and people carry and use them at all hours of the day. For the most part, this is a good thing: the benefits of staying connected at any time and at any location are considerable. But if you’re like most Americans, you may regularly talk on the phone or even text while at the wheel of a car. This dangerous behavior has resulted in increasing numbers of accidents and fatalities caused by cell phone usage. The trend shows no sign of slowing down. In 2003, a federal study of 10,000 drivers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set out to determine the effects of using cell phones behind the wheel. The results were conclusive: talking on the phone is equivalent to a 10- point reduction in IQ and a .08 blood alcohol level, which law enforcement considers intoxicated. Handsfree sets were ineffective in eliminating risk, the study found, because the conversation itself is what distracts drivers, not holding the phone. Cell phone use caused 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents in 2002. Related studies indicated that drivers that talked on the phone while driving increased their crash risk fourfold, and drivers that texted while driving increased their crash risk by a whopping 23 times. Since that study, mobile device usage has grown by an order of magnitude, worsening this already dangerous situation. The number of wireless subscribers in America has increased by...
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...The cell phone industry has the number one negative externality when it relates to using a cell phone while operating a vehicle. More and more accidents occur every day due to a driver becoming distracted while driving when using a cell phone. “The 2014 NSC report says the percent of drivers observed manipulating handheld electronic devices increased from 0.9% in 2010 to 1.3% in 2011.” Likewise, “National data show cell phones were involved in 350 fatal crashes in 2011” ("Cellular Phone Use and Texting While Driving Laws"). This amount of car accidents caused by driving and using a cell phone at the same time has caused governments to mandate certain laws prohibiting the use of cell phones, According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “14 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving” ("Cellular Phone Use and Texting While Driving Laws"). With this government regulation in place it will not prohibit consumers from being involved in the cell phone industry. It is a growing industry and many consumers are leaving the age of the house phones for mobile phones. Many consumers will only use their mobile phone for communication, and do not own landline phones. With the government laws that will continue to grow over time due to externalities there are also taxes that make an effect on the cell phone industries for consumers. Every state is different when they charge taxes on wireless phone...
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...Cell Phone use While Driving In today society we as people use cell phone for communicate. They play an important role in communicating in our modern society. Even though a cell phone is the most convenient and fast way for getting in touch with people, they should not be used while operating a vehicle. Cell phone use while driving has dramatically increased over the past years in the U.S., and studies show that the risk of having an automobile accident or near accident significantly increases when a person is talking on their cell phone. Although, not everybody who uses their cell phone while driving has been or will be in an accident, but an alarming number of people who were involved in automobile accidents have been reported to have been using a cell phone while driving. Because of the increased number of traffic accidents caused by cell phones, it can be show that cell phone use should be banned while driving do to the risk of getting a ticket, people get distracted while they are texting and dialing a phone number and maybe hands free headset should be banned as well. Individual that uses their phone while driving is taking the risk of getting a ticket or even an accident. It’s easy to get distracted while driving, but don’t the reason you get distracted is because you are on your cell phone. People who look away from the road while because they are looking for their phone or while they texting and evening dial the number. When you are messing with your...
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...Effects of Cellphone Use While Driving The reason I oppose the use of cell phone during driving is because I was once engaged in a cellphone use while driving that totally distracted me as it diverted my concentration off the road. This happened to me years ago, while I was driving home from work, I made a quick phone call to my mother and at the same instant the car swerved onto the side of the street and almost hit a pedestrian crossing the road. I realized that the risk of taking my eyes off the road for a split second could cause an injury and even fatal accident. It will show the audience why this issue matters to me, and why it should to them. Using a cell phone while driving is dangerous and increases the chance of getting into a car accident. Therefore, texting ban should be implemented to reduce the number of accidents on the road. Cellular phones serve as useful convenient methods of communication. It has become an important communication tool that is used by people all over the world to keep everyone connected. However, the increase use of cellphone while driving is becoming a significant cause of automobile accidents because it decreases a driver’s awareness and attentiveness resulting in driver’s being distracted and impaired driving abilities. It is true that cell phones can also be very useful, but when automobile drivers use them while driving, it becomes a very high distractor because it distracts the driver, impairs the ability to control the vehicle and...
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...Should regulations regarding the use of cell phones while driving be standardized? Explanation of Topic One Selection I selected this topic because I think it is important to have the rules for standardized regarding driving and cell phone usage. Audience: My audience includes all licensed citizens who owns a cell phone and operates a vehicle. Preliminary Thesis Statement: There is obviously a connection between impaired decision making while talking and texting while driving. Just like the government has implemented laws prohibiting drinking and driving because of impaired decision making while driving, the same needs to be done regarding phone usage while driving. Credible Sources: Distracted Driving State Laws. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2013 from http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/state-laws.html Possible sources: Romera, L. (2012). Safe Driving and Standardization of Cell Phone Regulations. Knoxville Daily Sun. Retrieved April 20, 2013 from http://www.knoxvilledailysun.com/news/2012/september/cell-phone-regulations.html Should banks be allowed to charge fees for using Debit Cards? Explanation of Topic Two Selection I selected this topic because I think it is unfair for banks to charge additional fees for us to use debit cards. Audience: My audience includes all individuals who own/use debit cards for transactions and also the individuals that have accounts with a bank that charges them extra fees to use their debit card. Preliminary...
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...Title: Why banning the use of cell phones should be mandatory A. To persuade and convince; B. To convince my audience that the use of cell phones while driving is deadly; C. The use of cell phones should be banned while driving because one can’t focus on driving and pay attention to the road at once. I. Introduction A. Texting while driving kills people; B. Texting while driving injures people; C. Texting while driving is a distraction. II. Body A. Texting while driving kills people 1. In 2011, 3,331 people in the US were killed due to texting while driving. (http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/) 2. According to data collected by Official US Government Website For Distracted Driving 11% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted. (http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html) B. Texting while driving injures people 1. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed that 515,000 people were injured in various car crashes in the US due to texting. Around 28% of all crashes in 2008 were caused by drivers in the age group of 18 and 29, who admitted to texting while driving. (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/texting-while-driving-statistics.html) 2. Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds...
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...Public Speaking Lesson No. 6 – Persuasive Speech Outline Dec 28th, 2015 TITLE: WHY BANNING THE USE OF CELL PHONES WHILE DRIVING SHOULD BE MANDATORY NATIONWIDE I. A. General Purpose To convince my audience that cell phone usage while driving should be banned nationwide. B. Specific Purpose To inform the audience of the significant danger of using a cell phone while driving, and convey the importance of “getting the word out” to enact both individual and societal change, nationwide. C. Central idea The use of a cell phone or other mobile device while operating an automobile always results in a distracted driver, which in turn has been seen to cause serious accidents, including many fatalities. These tragedies are entirely preventable, as virtually no phone call or text is so urgent that the driver doesn’t have time to pull over – or have another passenger operate the mobile device. II. Introduction 72% of drivers with cell phones report that they use them to talk or to text while driving. They are aware of the many dangerous situations and also know that it is illegal, but in most cases, discount it. A. Key point #1: Society’s reliance on cell phones. B. Key point #2: What is a distracted driver? C. Key point #3: What does it take to enforce the laws, consistently, from state-to-state? III. Body of the Presentation A. Key Point #1: Cell phones are as common and familiar to us as our wallets and keys are to us these days. We don’t leave home...
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...employees from texting at work. Answer: Text messaging (or “texting”) has grown so quickly in popularity and has become so pervasive that it has become part of our workplace culture. Some recent statistics regarding text messaging demonstrate how incredibly popular it has become in the last several years: More than 70% of wireless users (or more than 200 million Americans) have an SMS (or “short message service”) package for their mobile device that allows for short text messages to be sent from one device to another. The use of text messaging increased by 107% in 2009. Approximately 2.5 billion text messages are sent each day in the United States. More text messages are now sent via cell phone than calls placed with those same phones. Employers can adopt a policy prohibiting text messaging at work. If text messaging continues, you can discipline employees for violating the policy because, as you note, employees who are texting while at work are not working. Because of the prevalence of text messaging, even if you ban text messaging during work hours, you should put some guidelines in place that address texting in the workplace and require that your employees comply with them. For instance, you should have a policy in place that prevents the sending, receiving, or displaying of messages or images (email, text, or otherwise) on personal mobile devices if those messages or images could be considered harassing, offensive, pornographic, or disruptive to other employees...
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...Distracted Driving There are several ways people are distracted while driving but the most common reason is handheld cellular devices. Cellular telephones have been around for several years now and have evolved so much in the past few. Some of the first cellular phones only had the ability to make phone calls. Modern cell phones are personal computers that a person can hold in his/her hand. A person can read his/her e-mail, surf the web, send text messages, play games, and still make phone calls. The problem is people are using these handheld devices while driving, which is causing big distractions. Using a handheld device while driving is dangerous. Unfortunately there is no immediate solution to the problem of using handheld devices while driving (“Transportation Business Journal,” 2010). There are several levels of government that are making it illegal to use handheld devices while a person is driving through the area that they govern. Last year President Obama signed an executive order prohibiting texting while driving for federal employees. It is hard to enforce the laws because people are finding ways to hide that they are using the handheld device while driving. A lot of time law enforcement doesn’t know that a handheld device was being used until they investigate an accident (“Transportation Business Journal,” 2010). At this time there is no cost effective way to solve the problem. Studies have shown that using handheld devices while driving is a problem...
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...employees from texting at work. Answer: Text messaging (or “texting”) has grown so quickly in popularity and has become so pervasive that it has become part of our workplace culture. Some recent statistics regarding text messaging demonstrate how incredibly popular it has become in the last several years: More than 70% of wireless users (or more than 200 million Americans) have an SMS (or “short message service”) package for their mobile device that allows for short text messages to be sent from one device to another. The use of text messaging increased by 107% in 2009. Approximately 2.5 billion text messages are sent each day in the United States. More text messages are now sent via cell phone than calls placed with those same phones. Employers can adopt a policy prohibiting text messaging at work. If text messaging continues, you can discipline employees for violating the policy because, as you note, employees who are texting while at work are not working. Because of the prevalence of text messaging, even if you ban text messaging during work hours, you should put some guidelines in place that address texting in the workplace and require that your employees comply with them. For instance, you should have a policy in place that prevents the sending, receiving, or displaying of messages or images (email, text, or otherwise) on personal mobile devices if those messages or images could be considered harassing, offensive, pornographic, or disruptive to other employees...
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...regulations regarding the use of cell phones while driving be standardized? The use cell phones have spread like wild fire in the last ten years. It has become a part of everyday life for many Americans citizens, and a good number of people depend on them to carry out daily operations. Unfortunately, many accidents have taken place in the ten years due to the use of cell phones while on the road. The leads to believe that if people cannot concentrate on the road while talking or texting on cell phones they should not have a cell phone near them at all while driving. The purpose of this research is to discover if texting while driving is the leading cause of automobile accidents of today. Society does not view texting while driving as a safe practice. There are many articles, news reports, and laws passed on texting while operating a vehicle because of the danger associated with the act. Texting while driving causes numerous of problems such as: distraction from the road, a decrease of attention once he or she turns away from the road in responding to a text, and limiting physical ability because texting requires the use of one or both hands to reply to messages. These are some of the issues researchers investigate in finding a conclusion to if the individuals should or should not text while operating a vehicle. Solving the problem of texting while driving is important to Team A because it will reduce the number of accidents connected to texting while driving. According to Statistics...
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...Shelby Starnes 11-9-12 Comm 2200 Mr.Schlanger Introduction Topic: Texting while driving is dangerous Hook: Did you know that texting while driving is now one of the most popular distractions that take a driver’s eyes off the road? Link to audience: Imagine that someone in your family, your mom, dad, or sibling were to be killed by a driver who was sending a text message. Was that text worth losing someone you love? Thesis statement: Today I will persuade you into thinking that texting while driving is too dangerous. Body Texting while driving kills people In 2009, 5,474 people in the United States were killed due to texting while driving. This number is an increase to the 3,210 people that were killed in 2007. (http://www.stoptextsstopwrecks.org/#facts) Teenagers are the most common age group that die because of texting (45% of accidents resulted in death). In addition, The Allstate Foundation’s recent survey showed that 82% of teens report texting while driving, while only 23% admit to drinking and driving. And according to data collected by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, more teenagers die on May 20 than any other day of the year. Over the past five years, May 20 claimed 63% more lives than any average day because of prom and other end of the school year celebrations. A report from Alberta’s Workplace Health and Safety confirms the death of a young landscaper working for the city of Edmonton, was caused by a distracted driver who never seemed...
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...the cell phone came a new means of social media and communication called texting. But with all the benefits an emerging technology can offer, we can’t always predict what the impact will be on our society. This new form of communicating brought with it its own dialogue as well as its own dangers. We’ve seen an increase in accidents caused by distracted teen drivers who were texting, a new medium of bullying in our schools, and the newest trend that’s become popular with teens and young adults known as “sexting”. As cell phones become more popular, and the age of cell phone users gets younger and younger, so will the person who will be exposed to sexting. As our younger generation gets ever more influenced by the proliferation of sexually explicit images in the media and scantily dressed celebrities, the more difficult the job of a parent will become. How many more teens need to die from texting while driving or from committing suicide after sexting provocative images before we recognize this growing problem? With the introduction of texting to our youth and the impact it has on our society, we have been presented with a whole new set of concerns and it is clear that these concerns need to be addressed. The first forewarning of the dangers this new form of communication presented, came in the increase of distracted driver fatalities. The statistics paint a disturbing picture of just how big this problem is. An article in Forbes magazine reports that texting while driving...
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...Adam Heidenfelder Social Problems Professor Morse Texting While Driving When someone is given a drivers license, they are also faced with a great deal of responsibility. Not only are they driving a vehicle that has the potential to take their life, but it has the ability to take the life of others as well. Driving requires a large deal of focus and requires many types of concentration. Sending a text message while driving requires a great deal of attention as well and is projected to cause 28% of automobile accidents per year (Pascual-Ferrá, P). When someone chooses to send a text while driving, they are sacrificing their ability to concentrate on the road, increasing the chance of tragedy. In order for a change to be made in the way drivers view texting and driving, drivers must realize the negative effects texting can have on driving abilities. Evidence show that states that have banned texting and driving show a significant decrease in annual accidents. So, it can be assumed that if texting while driving were made illegal in the United States, the number of annual accidents would decrease. Many drivers believe that they are capable of giving full attention to the road while sending text messages at the same time. However, it has been proven that people often overestimate these abilities. More accidents have been caused by those who were texting and driving than ones involving drugs and alcohol combined (Pascual-Ferrá, P). Paola Pascual-Ferra, a doctoral...
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...become entirely dependent on their cell phones. One of the features that have changed the way people communicate is the ability to send SMS (Short Message Service) messages better known as text messages. SMS allows people to type messages and exchange them between mobile phones better known as texting. This trend of texting came around in late 90’s and has immensely advanced.It’s fast and it’s easy. We respond to that buzz of our phones spontaneously and tune out of our surroundings. A large number of drivers don’t hesitate to both read and respond to test messages while driving. Unfortunately texting has also become a huge safety concern when it occurs while driving. Texting while driving is a serious health issue. Multiple cases have confirmed that texting while driving is becoming a rising problem across the nation. The crashes are happening far too frequently involving both teens and adults. It has reached the point where many states have banned text messaging while operating a vehicle. While talking on a cell phone, a given user can still keep their eyes on the road and at least one hand free, where as text keeps the user’s eyes on and sometimes even both hands on the phone. Texting while you are driving takes one thing away, your vision. Everyone’s eyes are supposed to be on the road at all times. A crash could take place in just a second of you reading the message. Your eyes are the most important thing that you need while driving, a lot of harm could be caused. People...
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