Distracted Driving in The United States Research Paper

Distracted Driving in The United States - Research Paper Example Various laws and legislations have been implemented in different states of US but this still remains an uphill task for the states. Various new recommendations and options are coming up in the shape of laws. Slowly and gradually this problem will be overcome by introducing safety measures and educating the youngsters. There have been incidents of mobile usage that resulted in loss of lives. There was a high school girl Alex Brown who lost her life to texting while driving. So her parents are eager to create awareness of texting while driving after losing their daughter. Her parents have made a website for educating people on distractions caused by texting while driving (â€Å"Remember Alex Brown foundation†). Chirping mobile phones are less expected to make flying dangerous. It endangers the lives of other onboard passengers. Comparatively danger is more on ground and these electronic devices have killed people on the roads. As per the department of transportation, chatting dr ivers are exposed four times to a crash. If we compare the reaction of an alcohol drunk driver with a driver using mobile phone then the distraction from a cell phone using driver slows and equals to a legally drunk individual (Carlson). Texting while driving is more dangerous than texting while driving. Looking down on any object or receiving and sending messages during driving is foolish. According to research carried out at Virginia Tech Institute, a driver takes his eyes off the road for approximately 5 seconds while sending or reading a text message. In this time, driver covers about length of a football field at 55 mph (Carlson). If we observe handling of mobile phone while driving then it is clear that it attracts total attention of drier. While reading text it catches visual attraction. Physical distraction is there when one is holding the phone in hand and mental distraction when concentrating on the material it shows on screen. So, it takes complete attention of the driver (Simon). Today the number one reason of auto accidents is distracted driving. The percentage has touched the alarming stage in recent past. Distracted driving has become the number one safety concern of road driving. Transportation secretary named distracted driving as â€Å"epidemic†. Now Toyota motors is spending about 50 million US dollars on research on issues associated with distracted driving. They named it as â€Å"growing cause of accidents.† National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released some facts and figures at the end of conference which shows that more than 5800 people died and about 515000 were injured last year due to distracted driving. Other studies show that technological advancement has proven to be a major factor in traffic accidents (O’ Donnell). Statistics also show that texting has become the most accurate and very famous form of communication. People send or receive about 110 billion text messages per month. According to a survey, about 11 percent of teens have admitted the habit of texting during driving. Other reason for popularity of texting is that it is very short. That is why drivers believe it is the quickest form of communication from behind the wheels. Studies do not confirm this mind set rather it is proved that how exposed one is to accident while texting during driving. Even at slower speed the risk of accident is high (O’ Donnell). The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) has gathered data regarding