Text Messaging, Texting While Driving
Introduction
Texting while driving has become a major issue in the society. The number of people Texting while driving has increased. Both children and adults’ text when driving. This has increased the rate of accidents in the country. Most studies have shown that Texting while driving has more harm than using mobile phones while driving and drinking alcohol. This is because it causes more accidents than using mobile phones when driving. It also causes more accidents than driving under the influence of alcohol.
Texting while driving affects the reaction time and makes it hard for the drivers to stop the vehicle. It also affects the concentration of the driver as he or she tends to concentrate on answering texts instead of controlling the steering. It also causes impairment and hinders the driver from adhering to road signs as expected. The high rate of accidents resulting from Texting while driving has forced many countries to enact laws to prevent the behavior. Most people including leaders view text driving as dangerous. As a result most countries have outlawed text driving. Other countries have restricted text driving. This paper explores text driving, its advantages and disadvantages.
Discussion
Text driving refers to the act of writing messages or sending text messages, emails when driving. It also refers to the process of reading messages, emails while driving and also using the internet on a mobile phone (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010). Majority of the people in different countries view text driving as dangerous. Text driving is the major cause of motor vehicle accidents. Most researchers argue that texting while driving increases the level of distraction and this hinders one from concentrating while driving. Most of the children and adults write short messages when driving (Delpo & Guerin 2009).
This is according to a study carried out in 2006 by the liberty mutual insurance group. The researchers used 900 teens from 26 schools in the country. The findings from the study showed that 37% of the students used in the study found texting when driving to be very dangerous. This was also evidenced in another study carried out by the American Automobile Association. The researchers used students from various schools in the country. The researchers noted that 46% of the students were distracted when driving as they texted when driving. This is according to responses from the student participants (Delpo & Guerin 2009).
Most people have considered using mobile phones while driving as dangerous, but the introduction of short messages is the main problem. Texting has become common in the society since 200o due to the advancement in technology. This is because most of the cell phones include a text messaging option and internet connection. The text messaging option makes it easy for people to communicate while driving (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).
Though text messaging has a lot of benefits, it has some disadvantages. First, text messaging is the main cause of road accidents. Most researchers have linked the increase in fatal road accidents with the text messaging (Delpo & Guerin 2009). Scientific literature has highlighted the dangers of driving when sending text messages from a mobile phone. The researchers argue that driving when texting is limited.
A study at the MonashUniversity showed that sending messages when driving has a harmful effect on a several safety driving measures. For example, texting has an impact on the identifying road signs well. Most of the drivers’ texting while driving find it hard to determine road signs clearly. They also find it difficulty to know when to adhere to the road signs and this leads to road accident (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).
Further, the study showed that drivers find it difficulty to detect hazards and this leads to accidents. In addition, the studies have shown that driving when texting forces drivers to spent a lot of time concentrating on the mobile phone instead of concentrating on the road. This in turn hinders the drivers from driving well and it might lead to accidents. Other variables used did not have an effect on driving. For example, mean speed and changes in speed did not have any effect on road safety. Additionally, the lateral position when receiving messages did not have an impact on road safety (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).
Most of the adults in united states think texting while driving is dangerous as it causes distraction. For example, 89% of the residents argue that texting while driving is bad as it leads to accidents.87% of the citizens in the country consider texting and emailing when one is driving to have a negative impact on the safety of the passengers (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).
This is almost equal to the number of people who think driving when drunk is a threat. 90% of the Americans think driving when drunk is a threat as it leads to road accidents. This is according to a study released by AAA foundation for traffic safety. Though most people including drivers admit that texting when driving is dangerous, 16 out of 24 drivers agree that they have texted when driving (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).
Another poll conducted in July 2010 at fairleigh DicksonUniversity showed that 25% of the participants used in the study texted when driving. The number of drivers texting when driving had increased by 155 from 2008(Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).The increase in drivers sending messages and texting when driving is associated with drivers who are aged 30 years and above. A large percentage of drivers aged 30 years and above were texting while driving.35% of the drivers in New Jersey aged 30 years to 40 years argued that they send text messages while driving (Hess, Orthmann &Lim 2011).
Another study carried out by car driver magazine in 2009 showed that texting and sending messages when driving decreased the reaction time. The researchers compared two drivers then measured their reaction time to the start of light on wind shield. The researchers compared the reaction time f the drivers and distances while reading messages, replying text messages and impaired. The findings from the study showed that reading a text message while driving reduced the reaction time to almost 0.12 seconds and 0.87 seconds (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).
On the other hand, impaired driving increased the reaction time to 0.01 seconds and 0.07 seconds. The investigators also analyzed the results in terms of stopping distance. The results showed that reading emails when driving increased the stopping distance by 36 feet. In addition, sending messages added the stopping distance by 70 feet. Drivers who are not impaired take 54 seconds to brake. Hence, the results indicated that texting messages or reading messages had an adverse effect on driving and it could lead to accidents (Books,LLC 2010).
A similar study carried out by RAC foundation showed that texting when driving slowed the reaction time by 35%(Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010). Other studies showed that drivers who drive under the influence of drugs like cannabis and alcohol had a lower reaction. Driving under the influence of cannabis slowed the rate of reaction by 21%.The findings also indicated that most of the people who texted drifted out of the lanes more than those who do not. Also, the drivers had poor steering control than those who were driving under influence of cannabis. The control of the steering was 91% poorer among the texters compared to 35% poorer for people under influence of drugs (Books,LLC 2010).
A large percentage of researchers claim that drivers are distracted by taking their hands off the steering wheel and using their mobile phones. The factors above lead to impairments to reaction time and control of vehicles and hence increased the risk of having accidents (Books,LLC 2010).
Though texting while driving has a lot of disadvantages, it has some benefits. First, texting when driving enables drivers to make emergency calls. Most of the drivers have found it easy to make emergency calls when driving and hence benefited from having mobile phones. The number of drivers who make emergency calls has increased for the last few years (Plotnik &Kouyoumdjian 2010).
Almost 139,000 people make emergency calls on daily basis. Texting while driving has helped reduce the wait time for emergency services. This is because drivers and other people are able to get quick attention in case of an accident or danger. Others argue that texting while driving has made it easy for drivers to get assistance when having mechanical problems. This is because the drivers are able to communicate with other people easily. Lastly, studies have shown that texting when driving helps in socialization. Most people are able to interact with their friends when driving (Hess, Orthmann &Lim 2011).
Conclusion
Though texting while driving helps respond to emergencies quickly, it has more harm. This is because it causes road accidents. Texting while driving causes distraction to the drivers. Most of the drivers who send messages while driving and receive messages while driving find it difficulty to concentrate on controlling the steer wheel. This is because the drivers concentrate on texting or receiving messages. This hinders them from identifying road signs. Most of the studies have shown that drivers who text while driving have low reaction time than drivers who do not.
The drivers find it hard to stop the vehicles unlike drivers who drive under influence of alcohol or cannabis. In addition, the studies have revealed that the number of people who drive when texting has increased. This is as a result of advancement in technology like internet technology. The advancement in technology has allowed mobile manufactures to incorporate messaging options in their devices. Texting while driving should be abolished as it has a lot of disadvantages than advantages. Most of the states have outlawed texting while driving so as to enhance road safety.
References
Books,LLC.Text Messaging: Sms, Twitter, Text Messaging, Texting While Driving. General Books LLC, 2010
Delpo,A.,&Guerin,L. The Manager’s Legal Handbook. Nolo, 2009
Hess,K.M.,Orthmann,C.H.,&Lim,H.Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Cengage Learning, 2011
Plotnik,R.,&Kouyoumdjian,H. Introduction to Psychology. Cengage Learning, 2010
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