Essay on "Texting While Driving Is Fatal"

Essay 3 pages (1046 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Texting and Driving Safety

The Risks of Communications Technology and Driving

Just as more and more American states are enacting legislation to restrict the use of cellular phones while driving, an even more deadly habit has grown into a major concern: texting while driving. When cell phone use was becoming commonplace a little more than a decade ago, public safety experts began pointing out the potential risks associated with the use of cell phones by drivers. As a result, New York States became the fist state to enact cell phone bans in motor vehicle codes making it an enforceable and summonsable infraction (AHAS, 2005; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). Several other states followed that lead and have since implemented similar legislation requiring drivers who use cell phones to use a hands-free device (AHAS, 2005; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005).

In principle, these new vehicular codes are well-intentioned but probably insufficient to reduce the specific risks posed by the use of cell phones by drivers. They are designed only to prevent drivers from looking at their handheld phones, presumably for dialling purposes, and from occupying their hands with cell phones when they are supposed to be holding the steering wheel and watching the road. That approach is insufficient for two specific reasons: (1) hands-free devices only allow the driver to speak without holding the phone; they do not necessarily eliminate the need for the driver to focus his visual attention on the phone to dial or identify in-coming callers, and (2) the most significant way that using cell phones while driving poses a safety risk has more to do with the nature of the neural patterns in the driver's brain associated with the mental task of having a conversation over the phone; it is not just a matter of visual distraction at all (AHAS, 2005; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005, NYSDU, 2010).

According to brain experts and human cognition researchers, the human brain relies on different areas and mental processes when a person is having an in-person, face-to-face conversation and a conversation with someone who is not present, such as over a telephonic conversation (Chisholm, Caird, & Lockhart, 2007; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). The importance of that fact is that the areas of the brain and the mental processes involved in conversations with remote participants overlap substantially with the areas of the brain that are most important for perceiving, processing, and reacting to visual information from the external environment (Chisholm, Caird, & Lockhart, 2007; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). Nevertheless, current legislation restricting cell phone use is still based on the more obvious danger of drivers being visually distracted by communications equipment in their hands.

Texting -- Even More Dangerous than Talking on Cell Phones

The evidence is clear that the cognitive processes involved in carrying on a telephone conversation while driving dramatically increases the risk of serious accidents and even fatal accidents (Chisholm, Caird, & Lockhart, 2007; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). Statistically, talking on a Cellphone while driving increases the likelihood of an accident as much as being legally impaired by alcohol consumption (Hosking, Young, Regan, 2007). However, the more recent problem of communicating via text messages… READ MORE

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