Behavioral Scientist

The Real Reason You Shouldn’t Text While Driving

the dangers of texting and driving essay

Image: Alexandre Boucher/Unsplash

We all know the feeling. You’re driving and have a thought you need to write down. Or you realize you forgot to reply to an email, or a friend texts you. You think to yourself, Should I do it? Should I text, or email, or jot down my notes while driving? I know it’s wrong … but I could make an exception just this once.

But it’s never “just once.” In fact, I was in this exact situation when the idea for this article came to me. So, recently while driving to work, I deemed it my ethical responsibility to explain what’s really going on. Of course, I first jotted down my ideas in my phone—after pulling over into an empty parking space.

Most crashes are caused by people like you and me who think they can pay attention to the road and do something else at the same time. 

It’s All About Attention

Everyone knows that texting and driving is a terrible idea, but few understand why . Taking your eyes off the road has obvious disadvantages. But the real story behind the danger of texting while driving is far more interesting: It degrades our attention.

Over 90 percent of crashes are the fault of drivers. The most frequent driver mistake is “recognition error,” which encompasses “driver’s inattention, internal and external distractions, and inadequate surveillance.” In other words, most crashes are not caused by flagrantly intoxicated people, nor that aggressive driver who will do whatever it takes to get to their destination one minute earlier. Most crashes are caused by people like you and me who think they can pay attention to the road and do something else at the same time.

When you are engaged in conversation, be it on a call or texting—or even with someone else in the car—your attention is divided. And as fallible humans, we only have so much attention to spare. In fact, while there are very few magic numbers in life, there is a magic number associated with how many things we can attend to at once. And it’s not a lot.

In 1956, cognitive psychologist George Miller found that people can hold about seven chunks of information, give or take two (or, five to nine) , in their minds at one time. Today we call this working memory, and research since Miller’s time has found that the maximum number of elements that we can process at once may be even more limited, at only three to five chunks .

In all the driving-while-talking research, there is little to no difference in impairment between drivers using hands-free and hand-held phones. 

In 2001, before texting while driving had invaded the public sphere and the BlackBerry had become the smartest phone around, two researchers linked our limited attention to driving impairment. They found that when drivers were engaged in conversation, drivers’ attention was drawn away from the visual scene, even without any actual visual impairment. In other words, even when we are looking at the road, we don’t perceive it as well as when we are not distracted. We are seeing, but not perceiving. The underlying phenomenon is the same as the famed “ invisible gorilla ” experiment.

Phone Calls Are Worse Than No Calls (and Just as Bad as Drunk Driving)

A study using a driving simulator found that participants who engaged in hands-free phone conversations took longer to react to a car slowing down ahead of them compared to those who drove without conversation. This driving-while-talking effect was exacerbated when there was high traffic density, because there were more attentional demands on the driver.

Research also shows that when people are talking on the phone, crash risk quadruples . Drivers who are on a call are about equally at risk as is someone driving at the legal limit of blood alcohol content. In one simulated-driving environment, drivers who were on their phones got into significantly more accidents than the drunk drivers.

Importantly, in all the driving-while-talking research, there is little to no difference in impairment between drivers using hands-free and hand-held phones. Because it’s an issue of attention—and there is only minimal extra distraction when picking up or holding a phone—it doesn’t really help to use a hands-free device. Merely thinking about something other than the road is enough to strain attention and increase your risk of a crash.

Despite this, intuition tells us that as long as our eyes are on the road, we perceive what’s in front of us. It’s easy to imagine the risks of removing your eyes from the road and your hands from the steering wheel, but not as easy to see the risks of divided attention. This is likely part of the reason (or, shall I say, driving force ) behind the ill-informed policies that prohibit hands-on talking and texting but allow hands-free conversations.

Texting Is Slightly Worse Than Calling, and Passengers and Deep Thoughts Are Almost as Bad

It is no surprise that texting feels worse. When we text, our eyes are averted, and of course we need to see to drive. (Step 1: See. Step 2: Perceive.) I don’t need to tell you that it is not a good idea to drive wearing a blindfold.

But there is more to texting than meets the eye. While talking on the phone puts a strain on attention (interfering with step 2), texting fully switches our attention. It is not just divided, but completely taken over (getting in the way of both step 1 and even more so step 2). But while texting is indeed worse than conversing while driving, it is not by much .

Some researchers—using real cars, not simulators—found that hands-free phone calls are similarly distracting as conversations with another person in the car. The more complex the conversation, the more the driver’s attention was strained and their driving ability impaired. The researchers even found impairment for what they call “internal activity”—simply thinking about a lot while driving.

  So Why Do We Drive Distracted?

First of all, distracted driving doesn’t feel dangerous. We may recognize on a cognitive level that distracted driving is stupid, but we have no accompanying visceral feeling of fear, no associated emotion to guide our decision-making in the moment of temptation. Our brains do such a good job making us feel like we’re in charge that we don’t realize it’s all an illusion until it’s too late. If our hearts started racing as soon as our attention started to drift, we might be more inclined to stay focused.

Furthermore, we feel immune to the risks that affect other people. Researchers who study texting while driving find that their participants “have observed others driving erratically while using a cell phone, but these participants rarely, if ever, thought that their own driving was impaired when they used the cell phone.” And despite the fact that there is no benefit to practice (people who regularly use their cell phone while driving perform no better in studies than those with less real-life experience), the belief that we can manage persists. Consistent with this, three out of four people think they are above average drivers (a statistical impossibility). We are simply overconfident in our abilities.

Finally, many of us have a lot of experience making bad driving decisions and not suffering any consequences. Most times that we text and drive we are lucky and don’t end up in an accident. Brains respond to feedback, and when the only feedback we’ve gotten so far is that texting and driving hasn’t led to an accident, it feels reasonable to infer that we are able to do it safely. We imagine that the past will predict the future and ignore the actual risk. But when the stakes include fatality and the benefit of texting is so marginal, it’s not just short-sighted to take the chance—it’s simply stupid.

We may recognize on a cognitive level that distracted driving is stupid, but we have no accompanying visceral feeling of fear, no associated emotion to guide our decision-making in the moment of temptation.

Don’t Trust Your Gut

Since we have a false sense of security and don’t feel like we are behaving dangerously, we need better cues to keep ourselves in check. If you’re thinking to yourself, “I want to use better cues … how can I?” then here are some tips from similarly challenging behavioral problems.

Watch the most gruesome car accident video you can find on YouTube and play it in your head every time you think of reaching for the phone. Take a ride in AT&T’s #itcanwait VR driving simulator and make a public commitment on social media. Make a rule that you will never use your phone while in the driver’s seat, and attach the rule to a contingency contract where you accept some form of awful punishment if you break the rule. Simply turn on Apple’s “do not disturb while driving” or Samsung’s “in-traffic reply” so that you can drive knowing that anyone who texts you will know why you’re not immediately responding. Or better yet, don’t even make it possible to use your phone while driving—put it in the trunk! Whatever you do, don’t trust your intuitions, and don’t wait for the moment of temptation to decide whether or not to pick up the phone.

The good news is that you won’t even have to worry about this in a few years because cars will just drive themselves . In the meantime, if you are the one in control of two tons of heavy machinery (the weight of an average car), remember the real reason why it’s a terrible idea to text while driving. Or to have a conversation. Or to get distracted in any other way. It’s not just about keeping your eyes on the road, or your hands on the steering wheel.

The real reason to stay on task while driving is to protect your most precious, most limited resource: attention .

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Texting While Driving Essay Examples

Why is texting while driving dangerous.

Put simply, texting and driving are dangerous because texting diverts your attention away from the road. Although many people argue that texting only takes your eyes off the road for a few seconds, what they don’t realize is that in that few seconds, something unexpected could happen. Additionally, if you’re traveling at high rates of speed, you can travel significant distances in just a few seconds. Those few seconds that you are on your phone could be used to hit the breaks or swerve out of the way of a quickly approaching article. If your eyes are on your phone instead of on the road, you lose valuable time that could have been used to mitigate an accident.

the dangers of texting and driving essay

How do you Break the Habit of Texting While Driving?

One of the best ways to stop yourself from texting while driving is to create a habit that will keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel. For many people who rely on their phones for so much, this may seem like a difficult task. However, if you think about it, there are several things that you do habitually when driving a car that you don’t even think about, such as putting on a seatbelt or locking your car after you park it. The key is to incorporate putting your phone away as part of those routines. In that way, you’re not so much breaking the habit of texting and driving, but instead, creating new habits that prevent you from using your phone while in the car.

Making a new habit can be challenging. The key is to stay consistent and continually remind yourself of your goal until it becomes second nature. Try attaching a sticky note to the wheel of your car to remind yourself to not text and drive. Another good trick is to make a pact with a friend to help keep each other accountable. It is important to stick with your habit, not give in to temptation and always keep in the back of your mind the benefits of staying focused on the road and not driving while distracted.

The most ideal habit you can build is to simply turn your phone off when you get in the car. That way there is never any sort of distraction when you’re in the car – any notifications, no browsing social media, and no distractions while you try to pick the next song to listen to. However, this might not always be an option when you need to use your GPS or if you use your phone for entertainment purposes while driving. Fortunately, there are other solutions. You can use an app while you drive (we make some suggestions for good apps below!) and simply make a habit of activating the app before you hit the road. If you often drive with others in the car, another good option is to hand your phone to another passenger to hold onto until you reach your destination. If instead you typically drive alone, you can always close up your phone in the glove compartment, your purse, in the center storage console under your armrest or in any other place where you cannot reach it. That way, you can have your phone connected to the vehicle for entertainment purposes but will avoid texting and driving.

Can you go to Jail for Texting While Driving?

In Pennsylvania, drivers are prohibited from driving and texting. If you are pulled over texting and driving, you will be issued a fine. However, if you are texting and driving and you cause an accident, there may be criminal consequences for those actions that could result in jail time. The more severe the accident, the more jail time you can face. For example, if you cause a fatality by texting and driving, you may face up to five years in jail.

How many People are Killed by Texting While Driving?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that in 2017, over 3,000 people were killed in accidents caused by distracted driving. In Pennsylvania alone, a study estimated that in 2015, distracted driving caused nearly 15-thousand car crashes and at least 66 deaths.

Apps That Help to Prevent Texting While Driving

Nowadays, there are many apps available to drivers to deter them from texting while driving. Here are some of our favorites:

  • Drive Safe & Save– Designed by State Farm Auto Insurance, this app tracks your driving habits every time you get behind the wheel. Not only does it track when you’re using your phone while in the car, but also identifies when you’re speeding, breaking too hard or accelerating too quickly. The app will also provide tips on how to improve your driving habits. If you’re a State Farm customer, you can send your driving data to them and receive discounts for good driving on your monthly insurance bill too!
  • LifeSaver – This app was designed for insurance companies and large trucking fleet – but is available for families too! For parents who are concerned about their children texting and driving, the app blocks the child’s phone while driving and alerts the parents when they have safely arrived at their destination. The app works quietly in the background when you start driving to block mobile distractions but provides options to unlock for emergency situations. It also provides reports on how safely family members are driving and parents can also unlock a reward system to incentivize good driving habits.
  • AT&T DriveMode– Similarly, this app turns on when it senses that the phone is moving more than 15 miles per hour. Once activated, the app silences all incoming notifications, and will automatically respond to the caller or texter with a text stating that the person they are attempting to contact is currently driving. Parents are also alerted when the app is turned off, so you can help ensure your child is always safe.
  • DriveSafe.ly – This app has to be activated each time you get in the car. However, once it’s turned on, this app will read aloud each text message you receive. It will also automatically reply to the sender that you are currently driving.

Check your Smart Phone – Many smartphones have “Do Not Disturb” or Drive Mode settings that you can turn on when getting behind the wheel.

Considering the importance of this matter and increase awareness to the next generation, we had organized the “Texting and Driving Essay” contest on for students. We are very happy to find that we got many great articles which show our next generation is pretty aware of this matter. The following four Texting and Driving Essay essays are the best entries:

Texting and Driving Essay: Statistics on texting and using your phone while driving and ideas to break those habits

By Leticia Pérez Zamor

Every day in the United States around one out of ten people are killed by distracted drivers, and around 1500 are injured in some way in crashes by these irresponsible, distracted drivers. One of the most dangerous, distracting activities that many people do is texting while driving. It is extremely dangerous because people who do this are putting more attention in texting, and they take their eyes off the road while they are driving, which increases the chance that the driver can lose the control of the vehicle, and could cause a crash or even in a worst-case could kill other people. When a person is texting, she/he is thinking about other things besides concentrating on driving. This is very dangerous because it could make the driver lose control of the car and slow her/his brain’s reaction time in case of a potential accident.

The statistics are very sad because according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in 2011, 3,331 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver, and 387,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver. Additionally, a recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute showed that drivers who are texting are twice as likely to crash, or almost crash, as those who are focused on the road. These statistics are reaching higher numbers because people are using their cell phones more and more, especially adolescents.

For this reason, it is very important that we find some ideas to break off this bad habit of texting while driving. I think that one of the easiest and best ways to break this habit is simply to turn off your phone. In this case, the driver wouldn’t be distracted by the ringing or buzzing of the phone, and it wouldn’t tempt the driver to text while driving. Another way to break this habit is to download some of the new applications that can disable cell phones while people are driving. Also, there are other applications that automatically send a text to whoever is texting the driver to tell that person that she/he is driving and that the text will be answered later. There are a great variety of applications to choose I think that we can use these to help us with the problem of texting while we are driving. Additionally, if a driver is waiting for an important call or text and has company in the car, the phone can be given to a passenger to check it out. Also, there are some programs that are helping to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving and to keep it from occurring. In these anti-texting programs, people can drive in a simulated situation, where they are driving but also texting, and can see how many accidents are caused by this problem.

Something very important is that many of the states have started to pass some laws that order drivers to stop texting while driving. However, we need to be sincere: none of these laws will be effective if we as a society don’t understand that texting while driving could have terrible consequences, not only for us as drivers but also for other innocent people. I don’t think that answering texts is more important than the lives of other people; texting can wait until drivers arrive at their destination.

The Dangers of Texting While Driving Essay

By LoryYau, St. Johns University

With the advanced technology in today’s world, people are very connected to each other and are constantly on their phone texting friends, going on social media, or using the phone to pass time. However, this also includes texting back a friend while driving. As simple as it might seems, texting and driving is very dangerous and should be taken seriously. In fact, in 2011, at least 23% of auto collisions involved cell phones. That’s about 1.3 million crashes! Not only that but texting while driving is actually more dangerous than driving while being drunk or high on marijuana. Every year almost a million people in the United States get into accidents, the majority: teens. Unfortunately, the number just keeps increasing.

Though texting and driving caused many injuries and deaths, there are still people who don’t think it’s a problem and are confident that they can use their phone and drive simultaneously. However, 34% of teens aged sixteen to seventeen spend about 10% of their driving time outside of their lane.  This affects other people who are driving and can cause the deaths of innocent lives. In a 2012 Cell Phone and Driving Statistic, it is reported that 3,328 people were killed and 421,000 people were injured due to distracted drivers. Furthermore, it is said that talking or listening on the phone increases the risk of crashing by 1.3 times while reaching for a device is 1.4. Dialing is 2.8 times more risk of crashing while texting is 23 more times. Additionally, talking on a cell phone and driving at the same time can make the driver’s reaction time to be as slow as that of a seventy-year-old.

To break these habits, people can either turn off their phone or put it on silent before driving. This will force them to concentrate on the road only. But if this method doesn’t work on some people, you can use S voice or Seri to command your phone to read out your messages or to reply back. This will allow your eyes to focus on the road instead of your phone. No more reaching for your phone to text “Lol” or “Lmao” and endangering your own life and many others.  Though you are still talking while driving, it still decreases your chance of crashing. An app in smartphones that works similarly to the method I described before is called DriveSafe.ly. Basically, it reads your text messages and emails out loud and has a customizable auto-responder. A few other apps that help prevent texting are called Safely Go and TXT ME L8R. Both apps work by either blocking the phone’s ability to text, receive and use apps or locking the phone. Then both phones automatically send a message to inform your friends or family that you are driving.  For parents, you can give your phones to your kids while you’re driving. You won’t be able to get them back when they’re too busy playing Angry Bird or Cut the Rope.

To stop people from texting and driving, one of the major phone companies, AT&T, address this problem by creating AT&T’s It Can Wait to text and driving campaign to spread awareness. Many stories and documentaries are also posted online to support this campaign. You can also join millions of others who have signed the pledge to never text and drive and to instead take action to educate others about the dangers of it. If you still believe you can get home safely by texting and driving, AT&T’s simulator will prove you wrong. It gives you a real-life experience of texting and driving. With this game, you’ll only find out that it’s not as easy as it sounds. Before you look at a text, remember that it is not worth dying for.

The Issue of Texting While Driving Essay

By Justin Van Nuil

It seems that everyone has a cell phone, and they cannot be separated from it. Cell phones have made a huge impact in the world, both good and bad. Most of the bad come when people, especially teens, decide to use the phone when behind the wheel of a vehicle. There are some huge statistics against texting and talking on the phone while driving, and people are trying to bring awareness to this expanding problem across the United States.

Staggering statistics are out there for everyone to see, yet we go about our lives ignoring the signs and warning against using our cell phones while driving. Textinganddrivingsafety.com tells us that texting while driving increases the probability of getting in a crash twenty-three times the normal amount, and thirteen percent of the young adults, eighteen to twenty, have admitted to talking or texting before the course of the accident. This is due to the time our eyes are off the road, and our mind’s capacity to do only one task at a time. Just taking our eyes off the road for five seconds, while the car is traveling at fifty-five miles per hour, is the same as traveling a football field without noticing what is going on around us. Seeing the danger in this is very evident, especially around intersections. Taking eyes off the road through an intersection is probably the highest risk, the light could be changing causing the car in front to stop, or worse, traveling through the red light or a stop sign into flowing traffic.

Texting is a major factor when it comes to crashes and creating a hazardous situation, so preventing the usage of cell phones while driving would be a large step in limiting the number of crashes that happen in the United States. There are multiple associations that are already trying to prevent cell phone usage. Associations such as the NHTSA, the Nation Highway Traffic Safety Association, which is an organization dedicated fully to tips and facts and videos showing how dangerous it can be to use your cell phone. There are also Facebook and Twitter pages, and blogs. In addition, the driving course in Michigan has a section in the lesson on the hazards of using cell phones while driving.

the dangers of texting and driving essay

These are just programs that are helping to prevent texting while driving. Easy and simple ways that everyone can do as they enter the car. Firstly, by putting the phone in the glovebox, you eliminate the temptation to reach for it and use it while your driving. If you decide not to use that method, and you have a passenger, just give the phone to them, they can rely on the information to you if it is that important. Just keeping the phone out of reach, in general, will help prevent the usage of the device.

Not only are these ways are widespread and easily accomplished, but there should also be a restriction in general for usage while driving. I know multiple states have issued laws against texting, and in some states absolute usage of the cell phone while in the driver’s seat. Although, the overall effects may not be seen in the number of accidents prevented due to these laws, having a larger discipline for doing such activities should help in dropping the number of people on their devices.

Preventing the usage of these everyday devices is very simple, yet rather difficult, and will save lives if it works out. Accidents are deadly to many people, so creating an environment for everyone is better in the long run. As a young adult, I plan to use some of these ideas and promote these websites and encourage others around me to do the same.

Why is Texting and Driving Dangerous?

By Haley Muhammad

Example of texting and driving

It has become such an issue that every time we turn on the TV all we see is that same commercial running about that girl who died because she wanted to text her friend back. Or that now in every major TV show someone always gets in a car accident because they want to text someone that they love them. It’s clear that no one has the decency to pull over to text someone back or even call them to say I will text you later because I’m driving. It’s a rising epidemic that’s destroying the generation of teenagers. I remember when technology was something beautiful because of how helpful it is but, now its become a hazard to the generation alone. Statistics have shown that “ Texting while driving has become a greater hazard than drinking while driving among teenagers who openly acknowledge sending and reading text messages while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle,” stated by Delthia Ricks from Newsday newspaper.

Ever since the emergence of cell phones, this generation has become heavily dependent on it for every minute of every day. Cell phones and texting were created ultimately to provide communication but it has now become so much more than that. Statistics also show that “Seventy-one percent of young people say they have sent a text while driving. As a result, thousands of people die every year in crashes related to distracted driving,” (Distraction.gov). Texting while driving has become a heavy habit for most teens and adults as well but regardless of the commercials and shows and statistics that show the results of texting while driving most people cannot kick the habit. Other statistics include, “Individuals who drive while sending or reading text messages are 23 percent more likely to be involved in a car crash than other drivers. A crash typically happens within an average of three seconds after a driver is distracted,” (donttextdrive.com). Overall all these statistics are saying the same thing, is that one text can wreck all.

So many lives are taken or altered because of the simple decision to send or reply to one text message. If precautions are heavily enforced before adults and teens especially enter the car, then maybe this epidemic can become obsolete. Fines are enforced but how well is the question? Phones are the biggest distraction when you enter a car, this doesn’t completely forget about alcohol or trying to change the radio station but technology has become so advanced that we have voice text and on a star. If the message is that important phones should become voice-activated and only respond to your voice so we can still pay attention to the road and send out a text without removing our hands from the wheel. Technology has also graced us with Bluetooth if you need to stay in communication just use Bluetooth and make a phone call instead which is completely easier than sending a text anyway because it’s faster and you can get responses much quicker than you could with a text message. Reality is one text or call could wreck it all.

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Tackling Texting While Driving: ‘The Decision to Reach for That Phone Can Be Impulsive’

the dangers of texting and driving essay

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You already know that you’re not supposed to text and drive. Your parents have lectured you endlessly about it, you’ve been taught the horror stories about it in driver’s ed class, and you probably live in one of the 49 states where it’s illegal for teens to text behind the wheel.

But the numbers suggest you’re not always getting the message.

Teens were responsible for 9% of all the fatal crashes involving distracted drivers in 2017, according to government figures. While the percentage seems small, that’s nearly 300 deaths that could have been prevented. Not to mention countless injuries.

Kit Delgado, an emergency room physician who’s also an assistant professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, gets that it’s hard to keep your hands off your phone. He sees it all the time in patients who come into his ER, like the college student who was heading down the highway to pick up his girlfriend when he heard his phone ding. He picked it up, dropped it on the floorboard, reached down to get it and crashed into the guardrail.

“You talk to any teenager in the country, and they’ve been beaten over the head that texting while driving is dangerous,” Delgado says. “But the decision to reach for that phone can be impulsive, it can be emotional, it can be subconscious and automatic. Even though if you were to step out of the situation, you would say you shouldn’t be doing this.”

The Imperfection of Human Decision-making

Years of treating people who have been hurt in distracted driving crashes is a big reason why Delgado is researching this topic. He’s heading up a multimillion-dollar grant, one of the largest ever funded by the federal government, to figure out the best ways to use technology to help drivers put down their phones. The research team includes experts from the fields of medicine, behavioral economics , psychology, insurance and technology. They hope their work leads to the development of more smartphone programs that can nudge drivers into the correct behavior, like apps that automatically switch on to prevent incoming notifications while in the car.

“What my research group is trying to focus on is how can we design around the imperfection of human decision-making,” Delgado says. “I think we can make a big difference if we can solve for it the right way.”

For starters, Delgado says, “texting while driving” is an antiquated term for talking about the problem. Distracted driving means anything that takes your attention away from the road, whether it’s that Starbucks frappuccino you’re trying to sip, or arguing with your best friend about your Spotify play list. Conversations, eating, drinking, texting, checking emails and social media notifications, using navigation and music apps, even putting on lipstick all contribute to distracted driving.

“For me, it’s not necessarily about cell phones, it’s about all the facets that can be distracting,” notes Catherine McDonald, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing who has been studying teen driving for a decade. She’s working on the grant with Delgado and, like him, is motivated by her own experiences as a nurse treating young people injured in car crashes.

“What’s important to remember about driving is that you’re making decisions not just about yourself, but about other cars that you’re not controlling.” — Catherine McDonald

The research is still in the data -collection phase. Some of that data is coming from an app developed by TruMotion and being used by Progressive Insurance to capture all kinds of driving information – like hard breaking, speed, acceleration and distance traveled. The information will help the researchers figure out how to best use smartphones to help drivers of all ages.

“Tech is pervasive in the lives of teens. It’s a part of their very fabric, and the technology that we think of often is their smartphones that are with them all the time,” says McDonald, who also works at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania Center for Injury Research and Prevention. “This generation of drivers has grown up with the cellphone. They’ve had phones, they’ve seen parents with cellphones, so that piece of tech is a big part of their lives. When we move to the role of driving with teens, it’s figuring out how to keep them safe with that technology.”

To be fair, teens aren’t the worst offenders. Delgado says millennials – typically people between 25 and 34 – are the most distracted drivers of any age group. But the professors say that the lack of driving experience makes distractions most dangerous for teens. “We know it’s one of the leading contributors to fatal crashes in that group,” Delgado notes.

Teens may be doing things they think are safer, like waiting until they’re stopped at a red light to check notifications. But that’s time they could be using to assess what’s coming next – changes in cross-traffic patterns, a ball rolling into the street, a stalled car, and so on. “They need to be using all opportunities to take in information about the road,” McDonald says. “What’s important to remember about driving is that you’re making decisions not just about yourself, but about other cars that you’re not controlling.”

McDonald believes the distracted driving will decrease when society accepts the danger as a norm. For example, smoking, drunken driving and not wearing seat belts are all risky behaviors that have been reduced as people have internalized the message that they are dangerous. She also believes individualized approaches are needed, including assistive technologies.

The professors, guided by their research, were asked to give their best advice for teen drivers, and here’s what they suggest:

  • Use a Do Not Disturb app, which is automatically activated on many smartphones. The app prevents you from receiving notifications while driving and sends auto-responses to calls or texts. Some have settings that allow certain notifications to get through, so you can be reached in an emergency.
  • Use Apply Auto or Android Auto, available in newer cars, so you can give voice commands for most functions.
  • Get a phone mount for your dashboard. This will help you avoid looking down to find or use your phone.
  • Pick your playlist ahead of time. Music is one of the biggest distractions for teens, so set up your tunes before you start the vehicle.
  • Designate a passenger to handle your phone so that you don’t have to.
  • Talk to your parents so they understand you will not answer their calls when driving. Call them back as soon as you’ve reached your destination. “That’s a really simple conversation for a parent and a teen to have,” McDonald says. “Teens can initiate that, and it makes them really responsible.”
  • Know the laws in your state. Each jurisdiction is different, but 20 states and Washington, D.C., ban all handheld phone use.
  • Turn off your phone.

The professors practice what they preach. McDonald uses Apple Auto, and Delgado has a phone mount and a Do Not Disturb app. “It helps keep me honest,” Delgado says. “I’m busy like everyone else, and taking a few minor steps to counteract those urges to use the phone helps. It’s not easy, but there are a few things you can do that help more than willpower, which almost never works.”

That college student who crashed into the guardrail survived, but he had a head injury. Delgado wants to see more of his patients walk away from car crashes, and that starts with drivers understanding that nothing is more important than what they are doing behind the steering wheel.

“Because, at the end of the day, what really matters is not taking your eyes off the road,” Delgado says. “Anything that takes your eyes off the road for more than a second exponentially increases your crash risk.”

Hear the story of safe-driving advocate Liz Marks , who was 17 when she crashed her car while trying to read a text from her mom. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and facial injuries, and lost her sight in one eye and sense of smell.

Related Links

  • State Laws about Texting
  • Government Crash Statistics
  • Penn Medicine Grant
  • Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: Distracted Driving
  • Take the Pledge to End Distracted Driving
  • For More Tips on Using a DND Function

Conversation Starters

Dr. Delgado says that his study is trying to figure out “how can we design around the imperfection of human decision-making.” What does that mean and how does it apply to the issue of texting while driving? What other issues might it involve?

How many of the professors’ driving tips do you follow?

As a passenger, are you confident enough to speak up if you think the driver is distracted by their phone or just not paying attention? Why or why not?

7 comments on “ Tackling Texting While Driving: ‘The Decision to Reach for That Phone Can Be Impulsive’ ”

As a teenager myself, I experience firsthand the sudden urges to respond to snapchats at a red light or skip to the next song on my phone. So I understand the misconceived notion—that taking your eyes off the road for a second or less is a relatively innocuous action. But it’s these several milliseconds that could change someone’s life forever, or worse, your own life…or worse, death. Think about the impact that checking a text has on others now with a, hopefully, new perspective.

While distracted driving is a serious issue, and while I could fill pages with my thoughts on it, I couldn’t help but think about another issue many teens (and people in general) have faced that is more or less out of their control. Given that the outline of this contest is to “practice critical and reflective thinking,” and “connect ideas, insights and opinions with what [has been] read,” I think that it is appropriate to share all that I have been able to think about recently, despite what I have been reading.

Reflecting on the article about texting and driving, I found it hard to concentrate on the issue that was presented. Rather, my mind kept drifting off to think about how many lives have been affected in the past two weeks. We can thank…

Santino Legan, who decided that an annual garlic festival with four decades of history would be a suitable setting to open fire on young children and their families,

Patrick W. Crusius, who decided to take the issue of illegal immigration into his own hands and target Mexicans in his mission,

and Connor Betts, who decided to kill his biological sister, as well as eight other bystanders with a pistol with a rapid fire rate, for shaking up the country and instilling a new level of fear in US citizens.

We shouldn’t be scared to go shopping, nor should we be scared to enjoy a garlic festival, let alone grabbing a drink with friends. Yet, averaging more than a shooting a day since the start to 2019 is enough for the masses to be “scared.”

Still aligning with the outline of Round 3, which asks for “a personal story,” I have two.

The first one is that tomorrow, I am going to a music festival with my friends and a small part of me is afraid, which shouldn’t have to be the case. The second one is that I am living in a time where unnecessary fear has accrued as a result of lacking administration. In fact, we are all living that story, every day.

I hope that my usage of this platform can help spark discussion and ultimately lead to change.

#endgunviolence

“McDonald believes the distracted driving will decrease when society accepts the danger as a norm. For example, smoking, drunken driving and not wearing seat belts are all risky behaviors that have been reduced as people have internalized the message that they are dangerous.”

McDonald’s claim that risky behaviors like distracted driving will decrease when we internalize the danger behind those behaviors seems to make sense. After all, most people do not put their hand back on the stove after being burned once. However, as the article acknowledges, we already know that we shouldn’t take a call, eat, or daydream while driving, yet we still do it. There’s a gap between knowing something is dangerous, or filling in the correct bubble on a permit test, and internalizing its danger and choosing not to drive distracted.

Maybe a clue to this gap lies in how drivers education teaches danger. After an hour and a half of writing down boring rules in our notebooks (if you are parking uphill with a curb, point the wheels away from the curb…), my driving instructor would play the next episode of a safety film produced by the California Highway Patrol, and it was magic. When the lights came off, our heads would perk up, and we’d all spend the next half hour with our eyes glued on the screen. We couldn’t get enough of the vivid, greater-than-life depiction of high school. After a wild night partying, virtuous teens would make the mistake of driving drunk instead of calling a taxi. While still having wild fun in the car, what was about to happen next would ruin their lives forever. A bump in the road or a patch of ice on a bridge would send the vehicle flipping through the air or spinning out of control. Teens would be rushed to the hospital, and police would later interrogate and arrest some of them. The driver of the car that fateful night would see their friends disappear and forever receive only hateful glances from every direction. Teachers and parents would come on the screen and talk about the bright future the unfortunate victims once had. A scientist would recreate the exact scene of the accident, including a slow-motion of the car flipping through the air, talking about how if they had missed that one pothole, bump, or patch of ice, they might have ended up okay. The movie would end with an officer reminding us sternly that accidents from distracted driving could happen to anyone at any time.

We didn’t think that would happen to us. Of course, some people choose to drive drunk, and maybe cars can flip that many times in the air. But that was entertainment, and it wasn’t us. We were good students who knew the rules of the road, and we had been driving for months without an accident. Perhaps one issue is that the movies seemed too exaggerated, too un-lifelike.

California Highway Patrol must have thought this as well because their older driver’s ed films tried to be more realistic. Red Asphalt, for instance, had been put together from footage of real accidents. While some experts argue that those horror films have lost their effectiveness due to the widespread violence in video games and movies, many drivers education instructors believe that the gorier films are more effective. Most people, including Tom Marshall, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, acknowledge that the film won’t permanently change driving habits, but “if it can get kids to focus on it for the first month or two [that they’re driving], it has done its job.” Whether gore is more effective than drama is up to debate, but educational films’ shift to emotion shows that shock was not effective enough in changing long-term behavior. Indeed, there’s a value in safety films to increase attention in the first few months of supervised driving. However, it seems that after that supervision, we think that those films can’t be us, and return to bad habits.

Unfortunately, this trend holds for other behavior as well. We think that the past will repeat itself in the future, which can lure us into a false sense of security. We are aware of economic bubbles, most famously the Dutch tulip-mania, yet a lot of us continued buying houses up to the Great Recession because the price had risen for the past few years. We cheat on exams because we haven’t been caught before and “only the bad cheaters get caught.” One of my favorite statistics is that 73% of drivers think they’re better than average. After a shock like a bubble collapse or getting caught on a test, we may swear we’ve learned our lesson and change our behavior only to return to bad habits days or weeks later. We’re creatures of habit, and it’s easier not to start a bad habit than to get out of one.

Maybe no driving film can pull us away from already-developed technology addiction. However, there is still another issue on the table: driver’s ed movies may promote the behavior they intend to prevent by glamorizing danger. As journalist Martin Smith notes, Red Asphalt may be one of the most-viewed movies ever, and that may be due to reasons of entertainment, not education.

In his riveting memoir This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff speaks to the risk of glamorizing harmful behavior. The World War II dramas he watched are hauntingly similar to the scare films of today, “always with a somber narrator to remind us that this wasn’t make-believe but actual history, that what we were seeing had really happened and could happen again.” While Wolff acknowledges that the depiction of the Nazis’ downfall produced “glimpses of humiliation and loss,” they only lasted a few minutes. Wolff believes that the point of the show was not to discourage Nazism: “the real point was to celebrate snappy uniforms and racy Mercedes staff cars and great marching, thousands of boots slamming down together on cobbled streets while banners streamed overhead and strong voices sang songs that stirred our blood though we couldn’t understand a word. These shows instructed us further in the faith we were already beginning to hold: that victims are contemptible, no matter how much people pretend otherwise, that it is more fun to be inside than outside, to be arrogant than to be kind, to be with a crowd than to be alone.”

Certainly, not everyone is driven to dangerous behavior in the way that Wolff was. However, the risk of glamorizing danger is real. In one famous example, the DARE program may have encouraged drug use through its aggressive scare tactics.

The dilemma of human nature is that we learn more from putting our hand on the stove than being lectured about the dangers of burning ourselves. Even when we get burned, our learning may be temporary. However, we can’t afford to burn ourselves when it comes to driving. Therefore, the paradox of safety education is to make the danger seem real and instill fear but not to glamorize risky behavior. The gap between learning and internalizing is how much we believe in the world inside the television screen. Through the difference between greater-than-life reality TV and my experiences in the world outside my window, the world on the screen seems slightly foreign. At times, it can even be enticing.

Sources on the effectiveness of Red Asphalt: https://medium.com/@martinjsmith/the-cinematic-genius-of-the-red-asphalt-road-splatter-series-5289d382ffa3 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-21-me-wheel21-story.html

Due to my research, I have found many surprising things about being on your phone while driving. At any given time in the day, 660,000 are attempting to use their phones while behind the wheel of an automobile. To me, this stat shows how many potential accidents there could be on any given day. Another stat that worries me is that 1 in 4 car accidents every day are caused by texting while driving. If we just tried to put down our phones while driving we could reduce the amount of deaths and injuries every day caused by distracted driving.

As a teen I see lots of people risking there lives and mine in cars where texting and driving is normal. I have never had any type or urge myself but that would be mainly due to my minimal use of my phone other than for calling or texting (I dont pick up often). Mainly I keep my phone on silent due to attending classes 5 days a week on top of working. To avoid interrupting situations like my phone going off in class or getting a call at work I’m not supposed to answer. I agree with the statement it goes farther than just the cell phone as well and that our actions that involve anything other than focusing on the road can be detrimental to our lives and it’s not acknowledged enough. Driving is treated lightly until an accident happens and if it is escaped it is regretted when it should not had even taken place. We live our lives through trial and error and it is a dangerous way to live. It’s a way that can end our lives at any moment. It’s like you have to come out lucky to have had the ability to reflect and change your ways but everyone doesn’t get those chances. Your life can be taken away from you at any second without you knowing and texting while driving in a vehicle that doesn’t have 100% protection rate is a risk it may only be 9% now but that can add up the more it’s not changed. -DeMarcus Kilgo kwhs wshs NC

Hey DeMarcus! You are so right that this is a big problem. During my commute, I literally see so many drivers looking down at their phones. Thank you for sharing your perspective. I especially like your line “We live our lives through trial and error and it is a dangerous way to live.” If we just acknowledged the statistics and used some common sense, we could avoid this experimental lifestyle and not put our lives or those of others at risk. Stay safe!

Texting while driving is a horrific yet common act that many still do every day on their commute. While this is not the only distraction a driver faces, it is one of the major causes of distracted driving. While the solution of setting one’s phone on the side seems viable, it is a natural instinct for people nowadays to pick up and check their phones. Even preventions such as turning on “Do Not Disturb” might not work in some cases. Indeed, it does block out notifications, but it still doesn’t prevent the actual act of a driver from reaching their phone to check on it. Despite that these simple approaches are great in preventing some of the causes of distracted driving, they do not cover all aspects of it.

Therefore, I propose a new solution to reduce the amount of distracted driving: tracking sensors on frame glasses or prescription glasses of the driver, which the driver would either wear when they get into the car or in their daily lives. Because being distracted refers to any aspect of not focusing on the road, a sensor on the glasses can detect a movement that is unnatural to driving, such as looking down below the dashboard and not onto the road or mirrors. These driver glasses can connect to a wireless relay box when they enter the car, and once on the road, whenever the driver looks down into an unnatural position, the relay box will beep back in consideration of how alert the driver is on the road, beeping louder the more unaware the driver is through its position of the sensors. We can expand this idea by disabling the phone when it senses movement of the driver trying to beat the system by raising the phone on top of the dashboard or just the standard looking down below the dashboard and reaching for the smartphone.

One might say this system is complicated, as one can just turn off their phone in general, but constantly shutting ones’ phone down may become annoying, which might result in the driver giving up the habit as a whole. On the other hand, studies from the NCBI have found that noise induction will most likely make a person respond accordingly to their surroundings, as the human race has evolved in humanity from nature, so humans will generally react to a sound to perceive danger. Therefore, we can use this ideology to direct our eyes to only focus on the road. Although this system might not beat out all the distractions a driver might face — such as daydreaming or getting distracted by the outer world — it still blocks out the core causes of distracted driving, which include checking the phone, eating, and arguing with someone else about a Spotify Playlist. I believe this innovation can help our society immensely, especially younger generations who are attached to smartphones, as this technology will help cut down their loss of attention on the road.

As Catherine McDonald explained when she stated, “What’s important to remember about driving is that you’re making decisions not just about yourself, but about other cars that you’re not controlling,” driving is a privilege given to us that requires a large amount of responsibility and control. When driving, it is your responsibility to keep yourself safe and to not do anything rash that would risk the safety of the fellow drivers.

There’s no doubt that we’ve all heard the phrase, “Don’t text while driving!” numerous times in the past. We’ve all seen the consequences of behaviors such as these, and yet, why do people still do it? Despite knowing just how dangerous and risky these actions may be, why do thousands of drivers do this on a daily basis? Perhaps the thought of “that’ll never happen to me because I’ll be careful” deceives us, but the severity of the situation cannot be taken lightly.

Many different ideas have been suggested to the public over recent years, with recent ones including a Do Not Disturb While Driving addition to the iPhones, and Auto Apply/Android Auto for newer models of cars. Although we’ve definitely all tried these methods at some point, our temptations may get the better of us at the end of the day. So is there really any method that can prevent texting while driving for sure? As of right now, there really isn’t. But that doesn’t mean that there can’t be one in the near future.

The only way to solve a problem is to get rid of the source of the problem itself. The source of the problem would be the phones, right? The easiest and best thing to do in this scenario would be to remove the phones from plain sight, so the driver could focus on driving. As John Heywood once said, “Out of sight, out of mind.” By implementing current technology, there could be a surefire way to prevent texting while driving. In the car, there could be a compartment installed, and that compartment would be there for one purpose: to hold your phone. However, this compartment would be directly connected to the car’s ability to move, and without the device being inside the compartment, the car wouldn’t be able to be put into drive. To prevent any possible loophole, the compartment would also have a sensor installed, and this sensor would be used to detect that the device has been put into the compartment. After the device has been placed into the compartment, it wouldn’t be able to be removed until the proper destination has been reached. The phone would then be released from the constraints of the compartment, and you could go on to do whatever you needed to do safely. In case of an emergency, the phone would be automatically linked to the car via bluetooth, and with a single sentence, you would be able to call 911. The compartment would then send a GPA location directly to the police, and within minutes, they would arrive to help you in your time of need. With the addition of a new gadget like this, driving while texting would no longer be a hindrance. Everyone could drive safely, and they could rest assured knowing that something as rash as texting while driving wouldn’t be the cause of injury or fatality.

If there’s anything that commenting on KWHS has taught me, it’s that nothing is impossible. Young scholars from all over the world are coming up with new innovative ways to make the world a much better place everyday, and with the current technology that we possess, creating new things is no longer a burden. With the combined innovative thoughts from scholars all over the world, problems such as these will no longer cause us so much harm. It’s all up to whether we’re willing to work together to achieve this goal.

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Don't Text and Drive Scholarship

About the scholarship.

Don't Text and Drive Scholarship recognizes and rewards, with scholarships, students who submit outstanding essays on the dangers of texting while driving.

  • Essay Required : Yes
  • Need-Based : No
  • Merit-Based : No
  • This competition is open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are high school students, undergraduates, or graduate students.
  • Applicants must submit a 140character essay on the risks of texting while driving.
  • Finalists are selected on the basis of the content of that essay.
  • The 10 finalists are then asked to submit an essay of 500 to 1,000 words elaborating on the same subject.
  • The winner is selected on the basis of that essay's content and creativity.
  • Country : US
  • Dangers of Texting While Driving Words: 2297
  • The Dangers of Texting While Driving Words: 709
  • Texting While Driving: Risks and Prevention Words: 1120
  • Texting While Driving: Dangers and Policies Words: 681
  • Hands-Free Devices Use During Driving: Pros and Cons Words: 1458
  • Texting and Driving: Social Problems Words: 1117
  • The Contradiction of Simultaneous Texting and Driving Words: 622
  • Cell Phone Use While Driving: Why Is It Dangerous? Words: 849
  • Annotated Bibliography of Texting While Driving Words: 725
  • Cell Phone Ban While Driving Words: 596
  • Cell Phone Use While Driving Must Be Banned Words: 2501
  • Accidents Due to Texting While Driving: Quantitative Reasoning Words: 768
  • Cell Phones During Driving: Threats and Solutions Words: 1434
  • Distracted Driving Problem Analysis Words: 1803

The Dangers of Driving and Texting

Introduction, distracted driving, is hands-free texting safer, should hands-free texting be banned.

With modern technological advancements, almost everyone can drive a car, and almost everyone has texted while driving. Any distractions on the road can create a potentially dangerous situation for the individual in the car, other drivers, as well as pedestrians. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016), every day over eight people are killed, and over a thousand are injured in accidents involving a distracted driver (para. 1). The availability of auto-responses and hands-free devices in some cases can prevent a driver from texting; however, there is a need for more precautions to make sure that drivers will not text.

The use of an electronic device, especially a cell phone, greatly distracts drivers from the process of driving itself, watching what is going on both on the road and in the surrounding areas. Most notably, texting keeps the driver’s hand from the steering wheel, which is greatly dangerous. Thus, texting while driving affects all three types of skills required for a safe experience – cognitive, manual, and visual.

It is important to note the link that exists between drivers of younger age and their obsession with texting and electronic devices in general. Thus, the widespread behavior within the age group can greatly affect the possibility of an accident. A recent survey conducted by national representatives has shown evidence that under- 25 drivers are much more likely to text and drive. Within the age group of sixteen to twenty-five, almost seventy percent of respondents admitted to their unsafe driving habit.

Such a staggering response can be compared with the fourteen percent of all respondents admitted to texting while driving. Furthermore, while the majority of people with any experience acknowledge the danger of texting while driving, young passengers rarely understand the importance of reporting such incidents (Mayhew, Robertson, Brown, & Vanlaar, 2013, p. 1).

The possibility of a crash despite the use of hands-free devices is often underrated since the technology of in-car voice controls as well as other hands-free devices is relatively new; thus, there is little research conducted on the issue. On the other hand, hands-free texting while driving can also cause distraction and potential accidents. Thus, to put such a traffic safety issue into the perspective of public health, it will be beneficial for investigating previous research on hands-free texting to get to the root of the problem.

Even though the majority of the simulator and observational studies on driving and texting were predominantly linked to cell phone distractions, the results were beneficial for illustrating the effects of distraction in general and with the use of specific hands-free texting devices. For instance, the Canadian study in Calgary was conducted with the involvement of both experienced and inexperienced drivers.

It has shown that the process of visual scanning in the course of using the phone was greatly affected because of them being distracted by the phone. However, there was a contrast between the ways experienced and inexperienced drivers acted. While inexperienced drivers did not change them in speed despite their use of a cell phone, experienced drivers usually slowed down to be more alert of the surrounding environment while they were on the phone.

Also, there was evidence of the increased lane wandering with novice drivers who were using the cell phone. On the other hand, experienced drivers were also affected by cell phone use – the study found that when being on their phones, the time of their responses and reactions deteriorated and met the levels of beginner drivers (Chisholm, Caird, Lockhart, Teteris, & Smiley, 2006, p. 2354).

Despite the wide research on the topic of driving and texting, very few studies focused on the hands-free devices since the secondary tasks were rarely acknowledged as harmful. However, some studies examining in-vehicle technologies proved that drivers are getting distracted even while listening to the radio (Young, Regan, & Hammer, 2003, p. 6). The study conducted by Schweizer et al. (2013) focused on finding out how hands-free devices can also deteriorate the driver’s focus and attention (p. 4).

The participants were asked to answer simple questions with the yes or no responses and simultaneously push buttons located on the steering wheel, a system that also works with modern in-vehicle technologies. The study found that distracted driving greatly affected the posterior of the brain, the functioning of which is crucial for alertness and attention. Despite the relatively small sample size, the research was successful in confirming the hypothesis that multitasking can greatly compromise the driver’s cognitive functioning.

Thus, when drivers are focused on performing secondary tasks, including hands-free texting using the in-vehicle system, they become distracted and lack focus to look around and see what is happening on the road. Drivers may look on the road without actually seeing what is going on in the driving environment. It was also estimated that texting drivers could fail to see fifty percent of the events occurring on the road.

With the wide recognition of dangers associated with driving and texting, it was assumed that secondary tasks like hands-free texting posed no risks. However, as previously mentioned, such logic is flawed. Yager’s study (2013) confirmed that drivers’ responses were affected significantly when they increased their use of hands-free texting technologies (p. 1). Such a conclusion suggested that hands-free texting did not help keep the driver’s eyes on the road.

Thus, even though hands-free texting does put drivers in danger, banning it will not solve the issue since there always be individuals texting behind the wheel. However, there should be raised awareness of the issue within the public sphere as well as in the area of lawmaking. Texting drivers should be held accountable for putting themselves and other participants of traffic into danger. On the other hand, there is a possibility for further advancements in the sphere of hands-free technologies that will lessen the distraction and allow drivers to solve the most urgent issues behind the wheel.

To conclude, hands-free texting while driving has shown to deteriorate drivers’ attention and increase the possibility of an accident. Countries with increased traffic like India banned the use of all electronic devices on the road, including hands-free units, since they negatively affected the risk factor (Bartolacci & Powell, 2013, p. 181). However, there is little to be done with drivers that want to answer urgent calls or texts.

It is important to promote safe driving since school years so that the public is aware of the possible consequences. The sphere of technologies should look further into advancing the hands-free systems in vehicles, offering more options for drivers to stay safe and alert.

Bartolacci, M., & Powell, S. (2013). Advancements and innovations in wireless communications and network technologies. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Distracted driving. Web.

Chisholm, L., Caird, J., Lockhart, J., Teteris, L., & Smiley, A. (2006). Novice and experienced driving performance with cell phones. Web.

Mayhew, D., Robertson, R., Brown, S., & Vanlaar, W. (2013). Driver distraction and hands-free texting while driving . Web.

Schweizer T., Kan, K., Hung, Y., Tam, F., Naglie, G., & Graham, S. (2013). Brain activity during driving distracts. An immersive fMRI study. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7 (53), 1-11.

Yager, C. (2013). An evaluation of the effectiveness of voice-to-text programs at reducing incidences of distracted driving. College Station, TX: Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

Young, K., Regan, M., & Hammer, M. (2003). Driver distraction: A review of the literature . Web.

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StudyCorgi. (2020, November 7). The Dangers of Driving and Texting. https://studycorgi.com/the-dangers-of-driving-and-texting/

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78 Texting and Driving Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

📃 the texting and driving essay structure, 🏆 best texting and driving topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting texting and driving topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about texting and driving, ❓ questions about texting and driving.

A texting and driving essay requires a unique approach because it is not merely an academic take on an important subject.

Your paper’s goal is to prevent people from taking a particular course of action, which will harm them, their passengers, and even innocent bystanders.

Thus, from your title to your conclusion, your argument must be easy to apperceive, just as any possible advice that you may give should be easy to follow.

Begin your topic by drafting a texting and driving essay outline and thesis statement, which will later become your structural backbone.

During this process, you need to keep in mind your primary goal; assess each sentence you write with your pre-defined argument and how it may help support your central theme.

For example, you can mention the statistics of road accidents induced by phone-related circumstances and the mechanism behind distracted driving. You can even cite the law on using cell phones and driving.

After you have decided on your main points, do some research on each, amassing a thorough bibliography, which will help convince your readers of your position’s soundness and ethicality.

Book titles are essential but do not forget to search for scientific research that relates to your central theme. Integrating vivid examples from studies on texting and driving may help you sway even the most obstinate of readers.

Furthermore, you can draw inspiration from researchers’ structural choices, especially if you feel like their outline was part of why their argument felt convincing to you personally.

Finally, if you feel like your paper is still lacking something inexplicable, read sample essays online. Doing so will help you see for yourself what techniques do and do not work when convincing a broad audience.

During the body-writing process, remove any ideas that do not relate to your texting and driving essay thesis.

If you are talking about the dangers of texting and driving, then drunk driving is not a useful addition to your essay. To maintain a well-planned essay structure, your writing should be:

  • Factual and supported by research;
  • Logically interconnected;
  • Memorable and expressive;
  • With no unrelated topics.

Your texting and driving essay conclusion should bring together all of your points into a single paragraph. In this section, you have to summarize your findings and their implications for your readers explicitly, especially for those who partake in such dangerous practices.

If you feel like your argument is especially compelling, then you may even try to convince your audience to take on the role of spreading information about the dangers of texting and driving themselves. After all, it does affect even pedestrians.

Therefore, appealing to the fact that it may alter the life of any person, who is unfortunate enough to be close to a distracted driver, may be the main idea of your paper.

Finally, there is the matter of choosing your title. Texting and driving essay titles should immediately give your readers an idea of what they will encounter in your work and what kind of knowledge they will gain from it.

Be honest, but do not be afraid to write an attention-catching title. There is nothing academically worse than writing a well-structured and thought-out essay that readers overlook because it lacks a catchy title.

Still not sure how to start? Use IvyPanda to get more inspiring paper samples!

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Texting and Driving Essay | Essay on Texting and Driving for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Texting and Driving Essay:  Texting and driving have been one of the major causes of car accidents in recent years. Advancement in technology has its advantages, but it also comes with a bucket full of drawbacks. Texting and driving is more life-threatening than drinking and driving. While texting and driving, the person who is driving the car is in great danger since his mind is neither on the road nor his eyes.

A person driving and texting is not only putting his life in danger but also the people surrounding him. The person’s whole concentration is on their phone, and they hardly concentrate on what is around them.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Texting and Driving for Students and Kids in English

We are providing essay samples to students on a long essay of 500 words and a short essay of 150 words on the topic Texting And Driving Essay for reference.

Long Essay on Texting and Driving 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Texting and Driving is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

One of the greatest things that young adults look forward to is driving and getting their drivers’ licence. There are many laws and orders that are created to ensure a safe driving experience. One of the main factors of a safe drive is concentration and control over your stress. Stress and lack of concentration can hinder the ability to drive safely on the roads.

Some aggressive drivers do not follow any rules. They avoid alertness during driving. Accidents are avoidable. It only takes one to be aware of the surroundings. Cell phones are major distractions while driving. People nowadays tend to text during the drive. This act is life-threatening because it not only causes danger to the person driving, but it can also kill someone on the road.

If a person is texting while driving, his full concentration is on his phone, and he hardly has any idea about the surrounding. It can lead to major life taking accidents. Texting and driving are hard to stop because people nowadays are always busy on their phones, and while they drive, they find it hard to stop checking their phones.

When a person gets in a car, there is already a risk for him to get hurt. If texting is added, then the risks of getting hurt increases bringing the person much closer to ending their life. Texting and driving are way more dangerous than drinking and driving.

There are serious consequences to texting and driving. There are very little laws applied when a person texts and drives.

You can now access more Essay Writing on this topic and more.

Technology has drastically increased and in some way or other people are involved in it. Many people do not even like having phone conversations. They deliver their thoughts through simple texts. But texting while driving has become one of the leading reasons for car accidents and untimely death of people.

The biggest age group that has been affected by this problem is between 18 to 30 years. No one benefits from the issue of texting and driving. People need to understand how easy it is to take the life of someone else or themselves.

There are many solutions to avoid texting and driving. One should text before driving. The phone can also be kept out of reach once the driver is behind the wheels. One can ignore the phone by turning it off until the destination is reached. If the driver cannot hear the notifications from the phone, then the driver will be less tempted to respond while driving.

It is necessary to make people aware of the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. No text message is worth the risk of endearing the life of oneself and others. It is time to put down the phone and make a change and save lives from the dangers of road accidents. It is high time that a change should be made and serious laws and penalties should be enforced just for the sake of survival.

Short Essay on Texting and Driving 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Texting and Driving is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Cell phone use while driving increases the chances of accidents. According to surveys, one out of 20 drivers use a cell phone while driving. If one is carrying a phone conversation, one cannot fully concentrate on what is in front of them.

There are some laws enforced for texting and driving. But unfortunately, these laws have not fully forbidden texting and driving. Many still feel that they have the right to text and drive. It is one of the most dangerous things in the world today. People are so engrossed in technology that they do not notice the danger that lies ahead.

In some places, the act of texting and driving has been outlawed. It is a form of distracted driving. Texting while driving creates a crash risk of twenty-three times greater than driving while not distracted. Even if the person does not hurt someone while texting and driving, it can cause damages to the car. Every citizen must abide by every law to ensure safety.

10 Lines on Texting and Driving Essay in English

1. Washington was the first state to pass the law on texting and driving ban in 2007. 2. There are a total of 48 states that have banned texting and driving for all drivers. 3. If a driver has reached a citation for texting and driving his insurance rates might take a hike, or policy may be dropped off completely. 4. If it is urgent to take a message while driving, it is always better to stop the car. 5. In 2011 almost 1.3 million automobile accidents were caused due to texting while driving. 6. Texting and driving hold more dangers than drinking and driving. 7. The multitasking technology might be convenient but is not safe. 8. Texting makes a crash up of up to 23 times. 9. 19% of drivers of all ages admit to surfing while driving. 10. Proper awareness is necessary to stop the act of texting and driving.

FAQ’s on Texting and Driving Essay

Question 1.  What is distracted driving?

Answer: It is any non-driving activity while operating a vehicle.

Question 2. Why do people text and drive?

Answer: People are offenders and like breaking laws.

Question 3. If there is an emergency, can the phone be used while driving?

Answer: Every driver should make an effort to move to a safe place off the road before using the phone.

Question 4. Will my insurance policy be dropped if I am charged for texting and driving?

Answer: Yes, it will.

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The Dangers of Texting and Driving Scholarship Contest

Starpoint Scholarship Contest

Did you know that texting and driving in California is against the law? Additionally, texting and driving laws also become stricter if you are under the age of 18 in California.

According to the California Highway Patrol, you are 23x more likely to get into a car accident if you have been texting while driving.

Scholarship Contest Details:

In order to increase awareness of the dangers of texting and driving, we want students to write a 500-word essay sharing their best tips on avoiding this dangerous habit.

One essay will be chosen, and that lucky student will receive $1,000 to put towards their tuition on behalf of Starpoint LC, Attorneys at Law.

Essay Prompt: What are the best ways to prevent texting and driving? Give at least 3 tips for drivers to help avoid texting and driving.

Eligibility requirements:.

  • Applicants must be EITHER be out-going high school seniors (graduating summer 2024) OR students currently enrolled in a college, trade school, or university as of the start of the fall 2024 semester.
  • Must submit your essay by Friday, August 2, 2024

Scholarship FAQ:

Submission Deadline:

August 2nd, 2024

When will I find out if I am the winner?

The winner will be selected by Sept 13 th , 2024

Congratulations to Gema Rodriguez as the winner of our 2023 Starpoint's Dangers of Texting and Driving Scholarship Contest!

Submission Details:

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Texting While Driving: Unraveling the Dangers of Distracted Driving

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Introduction

The pervasiveness of text messaging in society.

Sweet V

Exploring the Reasons Behind Texting While Driving

The hazards of texting while driving, legislation and its impact on texting while driving, addressing the issue: awareness and technological solutions, challenges in changing behavior, exploring educational initiatives, community involvement and peer influences, continuous research and innovation.

Texting While Driving: Unraveling the Dangers of Distracted Driving. (2016, Sep 23). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/cause-and-effects-of-texting-while-driving-essay

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Texting While Driving: Unraveling the Dangers of Distracted Driving essay

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Published: Mar 25, 2024

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the dangers of texting and driving essay

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  2. Texting While Driving Persuasive Essay : Should Texting While Driving

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COMMENTS

  1. Dangers Of Texting While Driving: [Essay Example], 838 words

    In fact, studies have shown that texting while driving can increase a driver's reaction time by up to 35%. This delay in reaction time can be the difference between avoiding a collision and being involved in a serious accident. Additionally, texting while driving decreases a driver's ability to scan the road and anticipate potential hazards.

  2. The Real Reason You Shouldn't Text While Driving

    But the real story behind the danger of texting while driving is far more interesting: It degrades our attention. Over 90 percent of crashes are the fault of drivers. The most frequent driver mistake is "recognition error," which encompasses "driver's inattention, internal and external distractions, and inadequate surveillance.".

  3. Persuasive Speech: The Dangers of Texting and Driving

    Texting and driving poses a serious threat to road safety, not only for the driver but also for other road users. The act of texting requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention, diverting the driver's focus from the road ahead. This split attention can lead to delayed reaction times, impaired decision-making, and an increased likelihood of ...

  4. Texting While Driving Essay Examples

    The Dangers of Texting While Driving Essay. By LoryYau, St. Johns University. With the advanced technology in today's world, people are very connected to each other and are constantly on their phone texting friends, going on social media, or using the phone to pass time. However, this also includes texting back a friend while driving.

  5. Why You Shouldn't Text and Drive: [Essay Example], 557 words

    Overview of the Issue and Dangers of Texting and Driving Essay Driving distractions are common nowadays, such as eating or drinking, looking at scenery and talking with passengers. One of the most serious of these distractions is using smartphones while driving.

  6. Tackling Texting While Driving: 'The Decision to Reach for That Phone

    For starters, Delgado says, "texting while driving" is an antiquated term for talking about the problem. Distracted driving means anything that takes your attention away from the road, whether it's that Starbucks frappuccino you're trying to sip, or arguing with your best friend about your Spotify play list.

  7. Don't Text and Drive Scholarship

    This competition is open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are high school students, undergraduates, or graduate students. Applicants must submit a 140character essay on the risks of texting while driving. Finalists are selected on the basis of the content of that essay. The 10 finalists are then asked to submit an essay of 500 to ...

  8. The Dangers of Texting While Driving Essay

    The Dangers of Texting While Driving Essay. In today's day and age, technology has drastically increased. People seem to rely on the use of their devices more than anything. Typically, whenever and wherever, everyone is engaged in some form of technology, cell phones in particular. From pagers, to car phones, to initial "flip-phones", and ...

  9. Dangers of Texting while Driving

    This lack of concentration is the cause of many accidents happening today. (McElroy) According to reports, a person texting while driving has a 600% more likelihood of causing an accident than the person under the influence of drugs. In addition, texting while driving produces a 23% chance of causing an accident.

  10. The Dangers of Driving and Texting

    The use of an electronic device, especially a cell phone, greatly distracts drivers from the process of driving itself, watching what is going on both on the road and in the surrounding areas. Most notably, texting keeps the driver's hand from the steering wheel, which is greatly dangerous. Thus, texting while driving affects all three types ...

  11. How to Write a Texting While Driving Essay That Doesn't Suck

    2. Offer some alternatives. Think about why people text while they drive, and then offer some alternatives that are still suitable solutions to their needs. Example: Instead of replying to that text, people should have someone else in the car—the deputy, a brother, or a friend—do it for them. 3.

  12. 78 Texting and Driving Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

    The New Application "Stop Texting and Driving App". The application installed in the driver's smartphone will disable every function when the vehicle is in motion. The device and the application have more features in order to reduce the rate of having an accident. The South Dakota Legislature on Texting and Driving.

  13. The Dangers of Texting While Driving

    Texting while driving is a dangerous and deadly behavior that continues to pose a serious threat to road safety. In this persuasive essay, we will explore the undeniable risks associated with texting behind the wheel and argue for stronger measures to combat this hazardous practice.

  14. The Dangers of Texting and Driving Essay

    Texting and driving is known to the world as one of the most dangerous things to do while on the road. Not only is it dangerous to the person driving, but also much more dangerous to the people and cars surrounding that particular individual. According to many people texting and driving is similar if not identical to that of drunk driving.

  15. Persuasive Speech: The Dangers Of Texting And Driving

    BODY A. Significance/Harms - Texting while driving is a major issue that needs to be addressed a. (Statistic) Texting while driving creates a crash risk 23 times greater that undistracted driving. (Dreschel, 2014) b. Texting while driving not only threatens your life, but also everyone else on the road. c. (Statistic) Eleven percent of ...

  16. Your Phone is a Weapon: The Dangers of Distracted Driving

    The dangers of distracted driving are real. It's time to put down the phone and focus on the road. By making a conscious decision to drive distraction-free, we can save lives and protect ourselves ...

  17. Texting While Driving Dangers (pdf)

    Impact on Reaction Time Texting while driving significantly impairs a driver's ability to react to potential hazards on the road. Research conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that drivers who are texting have a significantly slower reaction time compared to those who are not. This delay in reaction time can be the difference between avoiding a collision and causing a ...

  18. Texting and Driving Essay

    Texting and Driving Essay: ... Texting and driving hold more dangers than drinking and driving. 7. The multitasking technology might be convenient but is not safe. 8. Texting makes a crash up of up to 23 times. 9. 19% of drivers of all ages admit to surfing while driving. 10. Proper awareness is necessary to stop the act of texting and driving.

  19. Persuading Against Texting and Driving

    Texting and driving has become a pressing issue that poses serious risks to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians alike. This persuasive essay aims to highlight the dangers of texting and driving, urging individuals to recognize the grave consequences and adopt responsible behavior behind the wheel.

  20. The Dangers of Texting and Driving Scholarship Contest

    Scholarship Contest Details: In order to increase awareness of the dangers of texting and driving, we want students to write a 500-word essay sharing their best tips on avoiding this dangerous habit. One essay will be chosen, and that lucky student will receive $1,000 to put towards their tuition on behalf of Starpoint LC, Attorneys at Law.

  21. Persuasive Speech: The Dangers Of Texting And Driving

    1. texting and driving can cause you to take the life of others. 2. Not only will it it make you feel guilty for the rest of your life but it can also cause you to go to jail for up to three year. Transition: That message that you really want to text can wait. III.

  22. Overview of The Issue and Dangers of Texting and Driving

    This solution removes the temptation to look at one's smartphone while driving, sends auto-replies and helps break the habit and dangers of texting and driving. Disadvantage. Imprecision. Some smartphones limit what assisting apps can do with messages, making them not as accurate as manual texting. Keep in mind:

  23. The Cause and Effects of Texting While Driving

    It includes an argumentative essay about why texting while driving is dangerous, as well as a free essay example for you to use. ... Despite widespread awareness regarding the dangers of texting while driving, a significant number of drivers continue to engage in this illegal activity. Presently, 45 states have implemented text messaging bans ...

  24. Thesis Statement for Texting and Driving

    Ultimately, the thesis statement for this essay is that texting and driving is a dangerous and irresponsible behavior that must be addressed through a combination of education, legislation, and technological solutions in order to prevent further harm on the roadways. The impact of texting and driving is significant, as it has led to a high ...