Driven to distraction: cell phones kill thousands
ALEXIS SEBRING
Perspectives Assistant
A cell phone in one hand, a steering wheel in the other, add that to the risk of driving down Pacific Coast Highway or Malibu Canyon Road and distraction can quickly turn into danger.
Teens claim text messaging is their top distraction while driving in a 2006 study conducted by Liberty Mutual Research Institute. The 2,600 traffic deaths and 330,000 injuries that occurred due to the use of cell phones while driving, according to livescience.com in 2005, clearly illustrates that a major problem exists and must be attended to immediately.
State legislators have recently recognized the distraction of phones on California roads, and passed a law to restrict holding cell phones while driving. The law will take effect in July of 2008. However, they will only demand a first offense payment of $20.
Driving on PCH and Malibu Canyon Road is no easy task. On PCH 3,800 people drive the coastal road each day and anyone can find a driver chatting or texting on a cell phone, according to MSNBC.
More than 236 million people subscribed to cell phones as of May 2007, and too many of those people do not realize the risk of reading a message or receiving a call while driving.
On PCH, so many other distractions exist without the ringing of a phone, especially when people forget they are driving powerful machines at fast speeds and on dangerous roads. It only takes one second to lose control and lose a life (or take one).
It is understandable that since cell phones have evolved into the number one means of communication, people depend on them for everything, from talking and text messaging to using calculators and cameras. But when people fail to hang up and put their work on hold while driving, it leads to danger on the road.
Along with the Dominican Republic, three other states have laws banning cell phone use while driving. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are the only states that demand that all drivers follow the same rule, unlike other states that simply give permission to local authorities to create cell phone laws. Washington is the only state that directly targets driving while texting.
One reason a law should be enacted, targeting text messaging on the road, is shown through the upsetting deaths in western New York, on June 28, of a driver and her four friends. The five girls died in a car crash most likely due to their distracted driver. A teenage girl made the costly mistake of focusing her attention to her phone instead of the road. The result: five easily avoidable deaths. If the girls could speak out against cell phone use while driving, they probably would, but sadly their deaths say enough. It is unfortunate that it had to come to these five deaths before lawmakers even consider making stricter laws.
“There are times when the consequences of texting can be deadly. The deaths of these five young people from Fairport illustrates this danger,” said N.Y. Sen. Carl Marcellino at a July 16 legislative hearing. Before more deaths occur, there needs to be a nation-wide ban of using cell phones while driving.
People who have been drinking cannot legally drive a car because their minds lack the ability to focus on the road; their judgment is impaired. This can result in a fatal crash, and using cell phones while driving has consequences that can be just as dangerous. People who handle their phones take their attention off the road, which can result in an equally dangerous collision.
So where is the equally as intense law against cell phone usage on the road?
No one sees a drunken driver paying $20 then driving away unscathed from his harmful decision. The law prohibiting people to drive while intoxicated exists because inhibited drivers can do major damage to other people as well as themselves.
For instance, running a red light can become the cause of death for an innocent law-abiding driver. When people use their phones in the car, they automatically become dangerous on the road because their actions can affect other drivers.
Since there exists no just law dealing with this, people do not recognize the risks they take when they answer their phones and text messages while behind the wheel. Once they do add up the risks and the danger of using phones while on the road, especially those like PCH, maybe it will be enough to stop the harmful habit.
Like Washington, California also needs to specifically mention no text messaging in the law. People will not take the law seriously if the law does not take problems seriously.
Obvious risks on the road should not be hazards to safety. By observing dangerous roads and the irresponsible drivers on them, more action should be taken to reduce the amount of automobile accidents.
If the government instituted a strict, nation-wide law, which encouraged people to leave their phones alone in the car, less people would be harmed. Until a harsher law becomes enacted in California, drivers should reconsider answering a call or a text message. Consider the pros and cons and decide what the safer choice is, because answering a call on the road really can be a life or death decision.
08-27-2007