Using Cellphone While Driving Caused Problems

Using cellphone while driving caused problems that have been attracting a lot of attention. Verizon should take action to ensure our cell phone customers to be safe on the road. It is proved that using a hand held cell phone causes distractions while driving. Because of this, hand held cell phones were banned by drivers in many states. Verizon Wireless supported this claim and now we are brought upon to support a similar claim as the National Transportation Safety Board is suggesting that hands free cell phones that are legal as of today, to be banned as well. In order to address this issue, this report will explain the dangers of using hands free cell phones while driving and will also suggest possible solutions to improve the situation.

Problem: Cognitive Distraction and Physical Distraction

Research has proven that listening to someone speak on the other end of a cell phone is enough to impair driving as it would impair a driver at the legal blood-alcohol limit. This is because using a cell phone continues to affect the brain activation and affects the cognitive functions. As a result, people cannot willfully ignore someone speaking to them and drivers cannot be overcome by one's own control. For example, in 2008, a head-on crash between trains in California killed 25 people, and the engineer was texting and missed a stop signal. In 2010, two tourists were killed when a tugboat hit a tour boat on the Delaware River. The tugboat's mate was on his cell phone and his computer.

The accidents in the examples occurred because the brain was not able to respond as fast as it would normally due to the distraction, and as a result it delayed the drivers' physical functions therefore causing the accidents.