Name: Jacob Zeller
From: Temperance, MI
Votes: 0
As
a society we can reduce dangerous driving habits, particularly
texting or the use of social media. When you are operating a vehicle
and texting at the same time, the brain is forced to focus on two
different tasks. The brain is not able to focus on texting and
driving at the same time. In order to drive a car you must be able to
look at where you are going and be able to think of what you are
going to do. When you look at your phone to text someone, you take
your eyes off the road, which could cause an accident. When you are
thinking of what you want to respond back, you are not thinking about
the road ahead of you and what you are going to do if something
happens. There are many different ways to get rid of the
temptation. People could stop the urge to look at their phone by
powering it down. If you have your phone powered down you will not
have to worry about your phone getting a notification and lighting
up, causing you to take your eyes off the road. If you do not want to
completely power your phone down you can turn on do not disturb or
turn on silent mode. It would make sure that your phone will not
vibrate. In order to make sure that you do not have to worry about
looking at your phone, you can put your phone in the glove box or in
your center console. If you are a driver of a car that has other
passengers in the car, you can have them from talking on the phone so
you do not get distracted. If you must text someone, do it before you
start to drive so you can focus on driving? While you are driving and
get a text, you can have a passenger text for you, which allows you
to keep your eyes on the road. There are many apps that you can use
that will prevent the calls and text from going through until you are
not driving. Some of these apps will read these texts aloud so you
can focus on driving. If you do get the urge to text while driving,
ask yourself if it is worth your possibly getting into a car crash.
Just by thinking about the risk could cause you to stop yourself
from texting and driving. Parents can also stop texting and driving
by placing apps on their teen’s phone that will not allow them to
access their phone. Parents are also able to get alerts when their
kid does texts and drives, so they can be told when it happens. Then
the parents can take steps to stop the kid from texting and driving.
Parents can also have a family discussion about the dangers involved
with texting and driving, or tell the person that you do not feel
comfortable with them texting and driving while you are in the car.
