Texting While

Driving
FDENG 101- SISTER MAREN MIYASAKI
SCOTT BENSON, TREVOR CORBETT, ZACHARIAH POWER, MIKE HODGSON

Introduction

The privilege of driving a car provides individuals a tremendous

amount of freedom. However, with this freedom comes a significant
level of responsibility.

Bombarded by media, gadgets, and interruptions, it is nearly

impossible for even the most conscientious driver not to become
unfocused.

Distracted driving is a widespread problem and causes accidents

resulting in injury and death.

The best solution to keep people safe is to accelerate the equipping

of vehicles with high tech safety features.

Statistics

Distracted driving has become one of the leading causes of

death, injury, and property damage by motor vehicles.

In 2013: 3,154 deaths, 424,000 injuries, and $39.7 billion

dollars in property loss (NHTSA, 2013).

1.6 million car crashes happen each year because of texting

while driving (Stanar, 2015).

80% of accidents involve some sort of driver distractions.

18% of all fatal crashes were caused by distractions.

Texting creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while

not distracted (Federal , 2014).

Education

Educate people on why the law is

important and have stricter cell
phone laws (The Church, 2015).

Discuss common distractions and

ways to better eliminate those
distractions.

Start young: Invite experts to come

and teach the youth about traffic
safety and defensive driving.

Educate the masses with ad

campaigns.

Highlight the dangers of texting in

Drivers Education Courses.

Legislation

A High Visibility Enforcement program was held

to reduce cell phone use while driving
(Chaudhary, 2012).

Other states such as California has already

passed laws that prohibits the use of hand held
cell phones while driving, you are however
allowed to use Bluetooth (California, 2012).

Observed hand-held driver cell phone use

dropped 2-4 percent in the three different
states that the program was performed it.

These laws have dropped accidents and

deaths anywhere from 20-47%.

However, according to a study done by Tudy

Knockless (2015), there has been an increase in
overall cell phone usage while driving.

Technology

DriveMode

App for your smartphone.

Silences cell phones when vehicle is in motion

(AT&T, 2015).

CellControl

Completely disables any use of cell phones

when the car has started (CellControl, 2015).

Car Features

Warns driver when they are drifting out of their

lane (Howard, 2013).

Automatically stops the car before a collision

(Forward, 2015).

Conclusion

These new features need to rise to the level of a safety

standard and be installed on every car. In our modern fast
paced society, we need to admit that we are constantly
bombarded with more distractions than we can ignore
while driving.

Lets use modern technology to fill in the gap between of

our ability and the level of attention needed to drive
safely.

References

Accident lawsuit funding firm, fair rate funding reports distracted driving statistics. (2015, Jun 18). PR Newswire.
AT&T DriveMode Fact Sheet and Q&A (2013). Retrieved Novemeber 23, 2015, from
https://www.att.com/Common/about_us/txting_driving/att_drivemode_factsheet.pdf
California Office of Traffic Safety.(2014). Cell Phones, Texting. It's Not Worth It. It's Just That Simple. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from
http://www.ots.ca.gov/Media_and_Research/Campaigns/Distracted_Driving.asp
CellControl (2015). Introducing CellControl. Retrieved from http://www.cellcontrol.co.uk/
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Commission. Retrieved from https://www.fcc.gov/guides/texting-while-driving
Forward Collision Mitigation (Auto-Braking) System (n.d.). Retrieved Novemeber 23, 2015 from
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Knockless, T. (2015, July 20). New study shows 39% rise in cell phone use while driving in California. Property & Casualty 360. Retrieved
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http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/accident-lawsuit-funding-firm-fair-rate-funding-reports-destracted-driving-staticstics-300101543