Research Paper on The Benefits of Avoiding Texting While Driving

Do you use your cellphone while driving? Much of society does text while driving or use any social media to take selfies while on the road. However, there are many dangers to texting while driving it does not only affect the driver but everyone that surrounds the driver. We think of texting to be a quick action but sometimes it can take our eyes out of the road for quite some time leading for less time to re-focus on the road. There are many ways people can avoid driving and texting without creating such hassle. That includes notification blocking apps or simply putting the cell phone out of reach while driving. There are many great benefits to avoiding this simple habit but the most important is saving humanity. The use of cellphones has been the leading cause of many car crashes.

As stated by Hopkins, “Over 2.5 million people in the US are involved in road accidents each year a population of the U.S is just 318.9 billion at this rate the American people could be extinct in two human life spans”, this is an outstanding number of traffic accidents. It is quite crazy to think that about three thousand people each day die at this rate just because one person couldn't keep their hands off their cell phone. Humankind needs to be restored in order to avoid extinction with all these people crashing and killing others. As stated by Liz Soltan, “If you are driving at 55 mph and take your eyes off the road for the average amount of time it takes to text, five seconds, you will have zoomed the length of a football field without looking at the road”.

Just imagining a football field is quite humongous to think about wasting so much time with our eyes off the road.It takes you to refocus your eyes on the road is quite amusing because we usually think that we can get our eyes right back on the spot but unfortunately that is not the case. What would happen if you're a slower texter even worse instead of being five seconds now translate to 10 or 15 seconds to which leads into a car crash injuring innocent people or even worse causing death to them. Taking our eyes off the road can change our lives in five seconds or less whether we will get to our destination or not is not a question anymore. Now if we take longer than the average texter, it may be too late to even hit the send button. Trying to avoid using our cell phones can be quite hard since we live in such a technological era, we are usually always connected to technology in order to stay in touch with our relatives or friends, but it can be managed to set it aside. For example, we can use our notification blocking apps usually iPhones have the feature where it says do not disturb. The do not disturb feature blocks any text messages or any notifications at all to avoid the phone from ringing or vibrating so it won’t catch your attention at all.

The notifications will be there once you open your phone but at the moment it is received you will not be notified to avoid distraction. There are also third-party apps that can be downloaded on the Apple App store or on Google play there give users features that can be customized to their needs. Many of these apps also include a feature where if somebody calls you or text is you and when this mode is on it automatically sends “I'm driving please call me or text me back later”.

Not only can we use notification blocking apps, but self-controlling habits can help us too. For example, women usually carry their bags in their front seat so it can easily be stored there while the person drives. Not only in purses can cell phones be stored but we can use the glove compartment or any other secret compartment in the vehicle to store our devices. Thanks to our amazing technological time cellphone mounts have been invented to allow the user to see their cell phone without even touching it. The cell phone mount can be placed in the front windshield or near the stereo. Also, there are many benefits that come if people would not text. As Ameen states “You don't want to be remembered by an unfinished sentence”, the point is no text message is worth risking your life. We can create consciousness on how many people's lives were determined by a “I'm on my way text”, sadly they never got to their destination. We may sometimes think that we can be quick about sending a text message, but it is extremely hard to get our eyes focus back on the road.

As it is states, “Specifically, drivers exhibited prolonged and frequent glances away from the road, missed more detection opportunities, had slower responses to hazards, were involved in a higher number of crashes and did not control their vehicles within the lane as accurately compared to baseline driving (i.e., when not texting)”, in the journal that researched driving behaviors of those who conducted a vehicle while texting can have a great impact on road accidents. A simple glance can be the determinant to an accident that will affect many lives. If we could commit to saving lives just by simply putting our cell phone down, many people could safely get to their destination. It may seem using our cell phone is what everyone is doing but little do we know it can cost us our lives. No text message is worth losing our lives. Rather than being remembered for sending your last lol text try to drive safely in order to avoid any future car accidents. Everyone wants to get to their destination and unfortunately because many of us choose to do 2 things at the same time it doesn't give them the option to get there. The next time you pick up your cell phone while driving remember that a text or call can wait but your life will not.