Melinda Quintana

English 219
Proposal Assignment

TEXT. DRIVE. CRASH

Introduction

As many know that it is not a safe or

a good idea to text and drive, we still do it.
the acceptance of mobile devices and other
electronic devices has had some unplanned
and sometimes deadly consequences. An
outrageous amount of traffic accidents is
linked to distracted driving, including use of
mobile devices as well as other devices
while driving, in result of injury or loss of
life. About 37,000+ people die in car crashes
in the U.S every year. Distraction while
driving is a huge danger to drivers, and the
study revealed, is awful. Many drivers were
distracted for varying periods of time during
more than half of their trips. This doubles
the risk of a car crash. It takes just three
seconds after a drivers mind is taken off the
road for any road accident to occur. This is
the minimum amount of time it takes. Three
seconds is the time it takes to turn your
ignition when starting your car. Just three
seconds and you could injure not only
yourself but someone else.
A study was conducted at the
University of Utah that the reaction time for
a teen using a cell phone is equivalent to a
70-year-old who isnt using an electronical
device of some sort. When teens text while
they drive, they swerve out of there lane
10% of the time. The chances of a crash
because of any reason is increased by 23
times when you are texting. Even if the
crash is another drivers fault, it could have
been avoided it if one had been looking at
the road instead of the phone.

Why do we have the urge to text when

driving? Why cant we wait till we are at our
destination to respond to the text message?
Approximately 660,000 drivers are using
cell phones or manipulating electronic
devices while driving, this number has been
the same or close to the same since 2010.
Did you know Every day; 11 teenagers die
because they were texting while driving?
You may not think its a big deal because it
hasnt happened to anyone close to you or to
you but think of others, some ones best
friend could die because they are responding
to a text message while driving. Could you
handle losing your best friend because they
were texting you back? The answer is
probably no, so why do we continue to do
this horrific thing?
One could assume that age would
prevent this habit from happening but this is
not true, per the chart below at the age of 70
and older some are still manipulating a

The Issue
We all know that texting and driving
is dangerous and could possibly end up in a
situation such as death or serious inquiries.
So why do we continue to text and drive?

hand-held device.
According to the US governments
distraction.gov site, 11% of drivers at the
age 18 to 20 who were involved in an

accident were either sending or receiving

texts when they got into the car accident. In
another survey by the Pew Research Center,
40% of American teens claim to have
travelled in a vehicle where the driver used a
cell phone while driving. Now think about
that, why was the driver not only risking his
or her life but the life of others? Makes no
sense.
Did you know, when traveling at a
speed of 55 mph, thats taking your eyes off
the road for four point six seconds to check
an incoming text message or even sending a
text message? This is equivalent to driving
blindfolded across the length of an entire
football field.
Suggestions How to Minimize the Issue
As time as elapsed there has been a
new method of being able to be on ones
phone, this is the hands-free option. This
option uses voice commands instead of
taking the time to look at
your phone for spelling, or
grammar errors. You simply press
the speaker button on your phone
and just talk and it types for
you. But recent studies have
discovered that the hands-free
method is just as bad as using your hands.
Drivers are still distracted by what is going
on with their phones.
Dr. Theo Compernolle is a Belgian
physician with about three decades' worth of
experience
in
clinical
psychiatry,
neuropsychiatry and neurology.
In his book, "Brain Chains: Discover
Your Brain, to Unleash Its Full Potential in a
Hyper connected, Multitasking World," talks
about how to distinguish between the

Even dialing a phone

increases a crash risk by

12 times, which is
incredibly concerning considering teens
spend about nine hours daily using media,
which includes time on their cell phones,
likely some of it while driving despite the
significant risks. Even on their best day,
teens are three times more likely to crash
than experienced drivers, because they do
not see the importance of talking to teens
about turning their phones off while driving.
reflexive and the reflective (or thinking)
brain, and how understanding the inner
workings of our brain can dramatically
improve our quality of life.
Dr. Compernolle gets straight to the
point about the dangers of distracted driving
that he dedicated an entire
section of his book to the
dangers of using cell phones and
tablets while driving. Some states
have realized the problem and have
begun to make laws to ban the use
of technology while driving.
The reason for this banning is
simple: It's almost impossible to drive a car
safely while talking or texting on the phone
because your reflective brain can only think
about one thing at a time. It is a fact: Your
reflective brain cannot multitask.
Your reflex brain is doing the job of
driving; your reflective brain should also be
on standby to consider and future events that
are out of the reach of your reflex brain.
Such as texting and driving.

The ideal option is to turn your

phone off while driving to avoid the
distraction of message notifications from
your email and social media, as well as the
temptation to answer and make calls and
texts. Make a personal commitment to drive
cell phone-free. Speak up when you are in
the car with someone who uses a cell phone
while driving, ask if you can do it for them
or if it can wait, change your voicemail
message to reflect that you are either away
from your phone or driving and that you'll
call back when you can do so safely, if you
are talking to someone who you know is
driving tell him/her to hang up and call you
later.
You can also take NSC's online
pledge to be an attentive driver. If you're a
parent with teenaged children, encourage
them to take the pledge as well, which
states:
"I pledge to Take Back My Drive for my own
safety and for others with whom I share the
roads. I choose to not drive distracted in
any way I will not:
Have a phone conversation handheld,
hands-free, or via Bluetooth
Text or send Snapchats
Use voice-to-text features in my vehicle's
dashboard system
Update Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Vimeo, Vine or another social media
Check or send emails
Take selfies or film videos
Input destinations into GPS (while the
vehicle is in motion)

Call or message someone else when I know

they are driving"
If everyone abides by this pledge, we could
make the road a safer place for everyone.
Conclusion
In closing it is beyond the common-sense to
not use your cell phone when driving,
governments around the world have
imposed restrictions and bans on gadget use
while driving. Many of these restrictions
involve hefty fines and are directed at
talking on the cell phone while driving, but
the dangers of texting are being increasingly
recognized, going by the quantum of fines
imposed on texting violations. its a proven

fact that
texting and driving is not safe and can cause
car accidents and perhaps deaths. If we
could just choose the safer way to drive, we
could prevent these problems from
happening.

Https://www.facebook.com/DistractedDriverAccidents/. "25 Shocking Distracted

Driving Statistics -." Texting and Driving. N.p., 30 Oct. 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.
Ramasubbu, Suren. "The Dangers of Texting While Driving." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.

"Texting and Driving: A Serious Killer." Mercola.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.
"The Dangers of Distracted Driving." Federal Communications Commission. N.p.,
25 Oct. 2016. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.