Distracted Driving Is Driving Under The Influence

Introduction

Many wonder every day while operating a vehicle if looking at their phone at any moment could result in a crash, hitting a pedestrian, or continuing on like nothing happened. Many people look at their phone all the time and don’t get hurt, so they assume they never will, as long as they’re careful. The reality is that a good amount of crashes that occurred involving phone usage when the screen was only looked at for a few seconds. While no one should feel the need to use their phone while driving, I will give arguments and evidence as to why it is even more important for inexperienced drivers to resist the urge. In this essay, I will go through many reasons why phone usage is dangerous while operating a vehicle. I firmly believe that the punishment for young adults for distracted driving should be treated as serious as driving under the influence.

Young Adults are Irresponsible: The Statistics

The primary cause of crashes are distractions, from objects you see on the road, to looking at an electronic device. Young drivers are more vulnerable to using their cell phones, as in this day and age, nearly every adult owns a cellphone, and many use at least one form of social media. Nearly 99% of adults aged 18-29 own a smartphone of some kind, and almost all of them use it at least once a day, so it’s believable that a young adult can’t resist it while operating a vehicle. A survey done by the National Safety Council found that nearly 20% of all adults aged 18-20 were involved in a crash in 2011. From 21 and on, the ratio of adults involved in accidents were as high as 10%, and as low as 5% (National Safety Council 2012). Adults below 20 are generally more irresponsible, since they don’t face nearly as many tasks and issues that older adults do, such as paying bills, meeting work quotas, and managing a business. This irresponsibility comes through while using a phone while driving as they don’t understand the danger they’re putting on themselves, as well as others. Older adults have likely either been in an accident, or been in a situation where a member of a party was injured, due to an irresponsibility factor or a dangerous mistake.

Science of the Brain Before 25

These differences of how adults versus younger adults react to different situations mostly roots from the growth of the brain. The way that an adult processes information and comes to a conclusion is with the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain for rational decisions. Teen brains have been found to first process information with the amygdala,a smaller part of the brain that first thinks emotionally. According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, “in teen’s brains, the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing - and not always at the same rate (URMC 2019). Applying this concept to phone usage while driving, an adult would process the consequences of becoming distracted rationally before letting their emotions take over, whether they are returning a message to their significant other, or reading a recent headline. For younger adults, the amygdala takes control before their prefrontal cortex, so the emotions that others may feel by not having their message or call returned, the urge to look at the phone is applied before thinking of the possible physical consequences that may arise.

The Reason Why This Would Not Be Applied to More Experienced/Older Drivers

Some may argue that discriminating against young drivers is unfair, but there is no substitute for experience. When humans do an activity for a longer period of time, they will make fewer mistakes. In a study performed by AAA, research showed that adults between the ages of 25-59 actually reported using their phones while driving more often than young adults. About 82% of adults from 25-39 admitted to using their phones, while adults aged 19-24 and 40-59 showed about a 72% admittance to phone usage (Green 2013). Experience should tell you a story when older adults are using their phones more often than young adults, yet they are in almost half to nearly a third of the crashes that adults aged 19-24 are in. The brain clearly plays a part in this, as the average human does not finish developing until age 25. This includes decision-making, multitasking, and using critical thinking, as in analyzing a situation and making the best choice accordingly.

Using the Phone to Stop Using the Phone

Some other things that young people can do to help themselves not get distracted is to download certain phone applications. A popular traffic app called Waze has an option to not allow you to access your phone while the vehicle is in motion. The only way to unlock while in motion is to put in a certain code, which is obviously dangerous to do while driving. Some Apple iPhones even have this function built in, and it has shown to be effective in reducing distracted driving. Apple’s IOS 11 update, which was approximately two years ago, implemented the Do Not Disturb option for all current iPhones with the update. There is even an option for parents to enforce this on your children, to further assist them in good practice of focusing on the road. While the punishment would still be enforced, this will at least begin to teach young adults to avoid getting a ticket, causing a crash, or if serious enough, dying.

What We Can Do As Civilians

Being uncomfortable on the road combined with distracted driving is a recipe for disaster. In 2017, distracted driving led to nearly 3,200 deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. (Nation Highway Traffic Safety Association 2019). The NHTSA has many facts and scenarios to give you an idea of how dangerous distracted driving can really be. For example, going 55 miles per hour for 5 seconds while looking at your phone is the equivalent of a football field. Other helpful tips the NHTSA provides are ways that parents, teachers, and teenagers can get involved to reduce the frequency of distracted driving. For parents, they can educate their children about the dangers of distracted driving. In doing so, it will also teach them the dangers of driving under the influence, as they are nearly the same thing. Teachers would perform the same task as parents, as teachers are there to educate us about the subject they teach, and give us life lessons in the process. The proposal of a new law that puts distracted driving equal to driving under the influence would likely be more present in more populated areas, such as Los Angeles.

Counterargument: Uber offers a tuition program for students attending Arizona State University for driving for them, so isn’t this good for teaching young drivers responsible phone usage?

Learning to make good choices greatly derives from our education, starting all the way from kindergarten, to even the end of our college journey. In kindergarten, we problem solve by placing the circular object into the space shaped like a circle. In college, we must choose a major to path our life, and learn to balance a schedule between work and school, as many students struggle to cover all the fees necessary. Arizona State University partnered with Uber to encourage students to gain driving experience and money. Once an individual completes 3,000 trips, they will “be eligible to receive full tuition coverage for all online courses” according to their website (ASU 2019). In theory, this would seem like a good idea to teach young adults to be responsible while driving. Unfortunately, if you check the requirements to drive with Uber from their website, you need a minimum of 3 years of driving experience if you’re under 23. What this means is that most students wouldn’t even be able to drive with Uber until they are around 20-21 years old. You would need to do around 9 rides a day in order to gain access to free online courses within a year of starting to drive. By this time, most students will have either completed their 4 years of college, or be very close to finishing. While young students will be able to earn a consistent wage driving with Uber, it would be smarter to partake in a different job, such as one relating to their major, or a job that wouldn’t require constant repairs, oil checks, or one with more consistency, as being an Uber driver can carry a lot of variance with where you must drive your riders to. In reality, this method is only useful to older people returning to college to either further their education, or finish their degree.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the punishment for distracted driving should be as harsh as driving under the influence for young adults. The purpose of this would not be to condemn a young driver for making a mistake, but rather teach them that driving like this could land them in the hospital, someone else in the hospital, or put someone in a grave. They must first become extremely comfortable with how to handle a vehicle, obey the rules of the road, and maintain focus at all times when beginning to drive to keep themselves and others as safe as possible. To further prevent us having to go this far, there are many useful tools for drivers to help them practice focused driving, how to spread the word, and statistics of reality to help get the message to stick with them.

Works Cited

1. Arizona State University. “ASU and Uber Education Partnership: ASU Online. ” ASU and Uber Education Partnership | ASU Online, uber. asu. edu/.
2. Fetterman, Anne (2019) et al. “Understanding the Teen Brain. ” Understanding the Teen Brain - Health Encyclopedia - University of Rochester Medical Center, URMC, 2019. www. urmc. rochester. edu/encyclopedia/content. aspx?ContentTypeContentID=3051#targetText=The%20rational%20part%20of%20a,cortex%2C%20the%20brain's%20rational%20part.
3. Green, Michael. “Teens Report Texting or Using Phone While Driving Significantly Less Often than Adults. ” AAA NewsRoom, 10 Dec. 2013, newsroom. aaa. com/2013/12/teens-report-texting-or-using-phone-while-driving-significantly-less-often-than-adults/.
4. National Highway Traffic Safety Association Andrew. currin. ctr@dot. gov. “U Drive. U Text. U Pay. ” NHTSA, 8 May 2019, www. nhtsa. gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving.
5. National Safety Council. “On The Road. ” Distracted Driving Research, www. nsc. org/road-safety/safety-topics/distracted-driving/research.
6. Pew Research. “Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in the United States. ” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 12 June 2019, www. pewinternet. org/fact-sheet/mobile/.