Should cell phone use be banned while driving?

Yes

5 of 271

by Madison Starr

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At the risk of having my sister, cousins, friends, and aunts chuck their cell phones at my head, I am going to wage war against my archenemy: the driver with a cell phone. I'm not going to use statistics in this article to aid my argument, nor am I going to include quotes from various politicians and lobbyists that give reasons for or against the ban. I'm merely going to state my opinion. I will leave you to yours.

I used to have a cell phone and I was guilty of using it in the car. However, I started to realize that I really was not paying sufficient attention to my surroundings. I quit using it before I could make a big mistake. In my mind, those that deny that cell phones have no impact on their driving skills are either lying or just plain ignorant. I have the same thing to say about people who have an alcoholic drink and then get behind the wheel of a car. That one is personal, though, so I'll save it for another article.

Since I've known about this debate for the past two days, I've been scoping out drivers on the road to see how many people were using their cells behind the wheel. I was also noticing how many of them had impaired driving skills while preoccupied with phone chats. Quite a large percentile was talking on their phones or texting with them at stoplights. I live in southern California, in a city with a massive appeal for tourists and a population, which has tripled in the past decade. The amount of drivers on the road is rising. The amount of auto accidents is also increasing; it seems, on a daily basis.

Yes, it's true, the use of cell phones only contribute to a fraction of the auto accidents and fatalities in this country. I know that many are contributed to drunk driving, eating in the car, applying makeup, reading, poor reflexes, fiddling with the radio, road rage, speeding, or plain old carelessness, etc. However, if we do not begin to do something to tackle these issues (even if it's only one at a time), then we may as well allow anyone to do anything while driving. There may as well be no driving laws at all if we begin to get lazy and negligent in our system. If we do not begin to map out consequences for irresponsible actions of drivers, then how do we expect to see any decrease in the accidents caused by one or more of these factors? Sure, there are rebellious people who may purposely turn their back and continue to break the laws, but there's also a few law-abiding citizens out there who may think a little harder before they pull out their phones behind the wheel. If a cell phone ban can prevent even one traffic fatality associated with its use, then I am most certainly going to support it. If I didn't, I wouldn't feel right. It would feel like I was knowingly aiding the pain and suffering of an individual. That's not what I'm about.

If you are someone whose daily norm is to talk and drive and can't live without your cell behind the wheel, please start asking yourself some questions. What do you do when you are driving down the road and someone cuts you off while talking on a cell phone, causing you to slam on your brakes and nearly have a heart attack? As for myself, I curse and get angry. How would you feel if your child was crossing a crosswalk and was hit by a car driven by a person talking on the phone? How would it feel if you were that driver? Would you have no guilt or remorse? Stop telling yourself that it can't happen to you.

Imagine for a moment that you're trying to make a legal left turn during rush hour. You're using the cars' turn signal and are waiting for a break in oncoming traffic to make your move. Suddenly, someone plows into you from behind going forty miles per hour. You're shaken and disoriented. Your car is launched forward and veers into oncoming traffic. An oncoming car strikes you again since the accident only took about two to three seconds to occur. Assuming that you have made it out or the crash alive, you are eventually met with help from police and paramedics, though you've suffered some injuries. Your car is smashed. Afterward, you find out that the driver who hit you from behind was using a cell phone at the time of the collision. Are you going to be understanding? Will you be quick to forgive? I know I wouldn't. Then again, people always tell me I hold too many grudges.

Some people learn from their mistakes, some do not. Many years ago, about a year after I got my license, I got a ticket for running a stop sign in my SUV. This, of course, is against the law and puts lives at risk. I already knew that. I had also driven that particular street many times and had known there were three consecutive stop signs in that area. Therefore, in my mind, it was an accident and I did not maliciously run the stop sign. I had been searching for a cd to put in my radio at the time. However, I admitted what I had done, acknowledged that even if I didn't do it on purpose, that did not make it any less dangerous, and paid the fine. Nine years later, I still have not searched for a cd in my car while driving ever since.

Drivers who use cell phones behind the wheel of a moving vehicle may not intend to cause any harm, but that does not mean nothing bad can happen. This is a safety issue. Our world has become almost entirely reliant on technology and fast-paced communication. It seems as if no one sits back and takes a breather anymore. People seem too concerned with phoning into an important meeting or keeping up constant communication with their friends these days. Caring about your relationships or your job is one thing. Devoting nearly every minute to it is another.

Humor me for a moment. Tomorrow, I want you to leave your cell phone at home when you leave in the morning. From that moment on, you are not to use a cell phone for twenty-four hours. See if you can last that long. If you do, congratulate yourself. You were able to resist the temptation of the cell phone, which has taken the world by storm. If you can't, then you may want to think about taking the bus from now on because you + cell phone + driving= a disaster waiting to happen.

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