Distracted Driving Essay

748 Words3 Pages
According to the official government’s website for distracted driving, any activity that diverts the person’s attention from driving is considered a distraction. When asking any teenager or their parents what counts as a distraction, the typical answer in this day and age is texting. Texting is the most common distraction among youth drivers, but it is important to turn attention to other commonplace distractions so the serious problem of distracted driving among youth drivers can be solved. As a passenger, I have seen young drivers nearly falling asleep behind the wheel or being excessively excited when with friends that they either don’t focus on the road at all or focus on too many things around them. Studies have shown after 17-19 hours…show more content…
The end result is the same as in being sleep deprived or being engaged with passengers, one’s rate of being involved in a car accident is significantly increased. While I never text and drive and chide my friends if they do due to my knowledge of the associated danger, I did occasionally divert part of my attention from driving by reaching over to change the radio station or to reach for something I dropped in the seat next to me. Committing any of these actions can be equally or more dangerous than using a cell phone while driving. Reaching for a moving object increases the risk of a crash or near-crash by nine times and looking at an external object by four times while using a cell phone without Bluetooth increases the chance of an accident by three times (Distracted Driving Indicators). Nevertheless, I committed these actions because they don’t receive as much scrutiny or ridicule as using a cell phone while driving. I see experienced drivers reaching over for objects on a regular basis. Additionally, in driver’s education, they didn’t show us videos that stressed the importance of not reaching for objects while driving like they did to turn attention to the adverse effects of texting while driving. The videos about texting and driving were extremely effectual because they showed people that were in a place similar to mine in their life could have
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