Ending Distracted Driving

I’m SO done with distracted driving! According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,142 people die per year due to distracted driving. Distracted driving, basically, is driving while doing something else, including talking. And the deadliest form of talking is texting. Texting while driving can seem so erroneously harmless since, after all, it only takes a few seconds. But the driver has to take their eyes completely off the road – while traveling at 45 miles per hour, the equivalent of 66 feet per second. Texting while driving is deadly and claims far too many lives per year. Something must be done to make texting while driving less appealing for drivers. Something must make those few seconds of looking down seem more scary than safe. But what? In my state of Arizona, laws have been put into place to do this and, thus, help eliminate texting while driving; but more needs to be done to safety on the roads.

Arizona has put many laws in place to reduce texting and driving. Currently, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, it is illegal to be talking on the phone or texting while driving. In fact, in Arizona, you cannot even hold a cellphone while driving! This law, a statewide ban on handheld cellphones, was enacted by Governor Doug Ducey on April 22, 2019. However, laws never come into effect immediately, and this law only came into effect a couple months ago on January 1^st of this year (2021). Those who wrote the law attempted to think of every way that drivers could be distracted while driving, including texting while driving, and this law does appear to be effective, so far, in limiting texting and driving. Thus, my state, Arizona, is competing against the deadly problem of texting and driving through a new law, one that bans cell phone use for drivers, except for hands-free mode, GPS, and calling 911. However, more still needs to be done.

This law, against handheld cell phone use, no matter how extensive, cannot completely solve the problem of texting and driving. Laws only tell people what not to do; laws do not tell people how to do what they should do. For example, in our modern world, more people connect (through texting) on social media platforms rather than messaging or calling. Because of this, the urge to text someone rather than call them is becoming stronger, because more and more people cannot be called! And so other options like hands-free calling are rendered obsolete. The few seconds that it takes to send a text is viewed as less and less treacherous, no matter how dangerous for the driver physically or legally. The law, has told drivers what not to do. Now something needs to help drivers do what they should do. Airplanes had a similar problem. As cell phones started entering planes, pilots noticed a click sound from the cell phone signals when messages were received. Then cell phones became more prevalent, and the click sounds became almost constant – and completely unbearable for the pilots. But cell phones – and other devices that send and receive messages – could not be banned from airplanes by law. They were too integrated into daily life! And so, airplane mode was invented, a way for people to text and pilots to fly undisturbed at the same time. If such a thing as airplane mode exists, surely such a thing as driver mode could exist! This driver mode would be a switch that could be turned on or off just like airplane mode. And, just as airplane mode keeps the signals from the cell phone messages from distracting the pilot, driver mode would prevent texting (or going on social media) from distracting the driver. Airplane mode turns off calling, messaging, Wi-Fi, and data systems while flying just as driver mode would turn off messaging, and app systems (except for GPS) for drivers. That way the driver could use the phone’s hands-free mode, use GPS, and call 911. But they would never be tempted to text while drive. 

Of course, driver mode is not an impeccable idea. Driver mode would not bring the number of deaths from texting and driving to zero. Drivers, for instance, might refuse to use it just as, some people refuse to turn on airplane mode while on a plane. But the law prevents drivers from using their phones while driving; this mandate paired with the solution of driver mode would give drivers a stronger incentive to use driver mode. And, with more and more people using driver mode, less and less people will be texting. Thus, fewer and fewer people would be harmed from texting and driving. Currently, Arizona is competing against the deadly problem of texting and driving through a new law, one that bans cell phone use for drivers, except for hands-free mode, GPS, and calling 911. This law tells people what not to do, but something needs to help drivers do what they should do. And this something is driver mode. This function on cell phones would work like airplane mode and turn off messaging and app systems, so the driver could only use the phone’s hands-free mode, use GPS, and call 911 while never being tempted to text while driving.