Distracted Driving

There
is a self-control issue that is out of hand. Yearly, thousands of
people die and many more are injured in car crashes caused by
distracted driving. The increasing number of those impacted by a
distracted driving crash is directly correlated to the surge in cell
phone use within the past decade. Furthermore, the issue of
distracted driving is one that I personally find pertinent, as it is
particularly common among my peer group of teenagers. While I do not
engage with my phone on the road, I am still affected by this issue
since many of my friends think they can multitask while driving. I
have to continue this habit of safe driving and urge my friends to
do the same,

In
response to the rise of distracted driving-related incidents, many
states have banned texting-and- driving. Unfortunately, these laws
have not been effective due to the specific nature of their
terminology and the difficulty of authorities to convict a driver of
texting-and-driving. For example, there are exceptions to certain
state laws allowing mobile use while stopped in traffic or at an
intersection. These types of nuances in legislation’s verbiage
result in enforcement challenges that lessen these laws’ overall
effectiveness. Other states’ laws are specific to
texting-and-driving and do not ban all personal device use, so
drivers are able to defend their distracted actions if they are, for
examples, if they are using a GPS app. Therefore, distracted driving
infractions are easy to avoid.

The
limited severity of the government’s rules and regulations
demonstrate a necessity for laws to be made more effective. In other
words, law enforcement must change penalties and enforcement
strategies to more harshly reflect the serious nature of
texting-and-driving. States with harsher penalties for texting-and-
driving infractions and all-encompassing laws towards cell phone use
have seen greater results among their drivers. For example, some
states punishment for a texting-and-driving charge also includes
points on a driver’s record, which potentially leads to higher
insurance rates, and other states have banned driver mobile use under
all circumstances.

At
the end of the day, the most effective solution to distracted driving
is Drivers ed. Drivers ed makes drivers take the
responsibility for their actions by setting a standard of no
tolerance for cell phone use behind the wheel or any other form of
distracted driving. Drivers ed will create a safer environment
for everyone on the road.