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Katie Hobson

March 06, 2019

ELA 4

Persuasive Paper

Stop Texting and Driving

We’ve all seen the sad and graphic memes showing what happens when people text and

drive. We’ve heard the stories, seen the parents crying over their lost teenagers that are no longer

around because they just had to take that last call, or send that final text, that lead to the car crash

that ended their lives. So why is it still happening? Why are teens still texting and driving when

they know the risks? This is the question I sought to answer. I found information that supported

what I previously believed, but also some that made me rethink who might need to shoulder

more responsibility.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the leading cause of death for teens

was accidents, with motor vehicle fatalities being the largest area of accidental death in teens.

Distracted driving was blamed for most of these fatalities. (Miniño) While this report was from

2010, and may seem out of date, there were no new reports put out by the CDC since then. I’m

still counting this as valid information, since many of the social media platforms that teens favor

today (Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram) weren’t nearly as widespread then as they are now. My

guess is that if anything, the fatalities from distracted driving has increased since 2010, not

decreased.

A very useful site called textinganddrivingsafety.com (Texting And Driving Safety) gave

many statistics on texting and driving. I made sure to follow their referenced sites to make sure
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their facts were accurate. The site was published in 2015 and matched other more recent

statistics, so I felt it was a valid source of information. It gave the usual information that we’ve

all heard before, but some data stood out to me as particularly powerful. One visual that they

presented was that the minimum time that your attention is taken away from the road to deal with

a text is about five seconds. That is like driving blind for the length of a football field if you’re

going 55 miles per hour. That’s only the minimum. I know I can’t get my password put in the

phone, scroll, read and respond to a text in that amount of time. Therefore you’re probably

looking away for much longer. Even as an experienced driver, the thought of basically being

blind for that period of time is frightening, let alone for our younger drivers. This website, along

with their partners, offers some solutions to the problem of texting and driving. They create and

sell red thumb bands that say “W8 2 TXT” and “TXTNG KILLS” so that when a teen goes to

text, they’ll see the red band and stop. I’m not sure that would really work for most teenagers. I

would think that they would just remove the band, either from embarrassment or because they’re

uncomfortable, and never put it back on again. I do think the idea of a visible reminder is a good

one, I’m just not sure if that’s the best method, even if Adam Levine does endorse it.

The online published paper "Teens and Distracted Driving: Texting, Talking and Other

Uses of the Cell Phone Behind the Wheel" (Madden and Lenhart) gave some information that hit

a little closer to home for me, and perhaps revealed that irresponsible teenagers weren’t the only

ones to blame in this epidemic of texting and driving. I was a little alarmed to read that 48% of

young drivers have seen parents talk on the phone while driving. 15% of those same drivers have

seen parents text while driving and 48% of kids 12-17 years old have been in a car while the

driver was texting. 27% of adults admit to having sent or received texts while driving. What
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example is this setting for teens? How hypocritical are parents who threaten their children if they

ever text while driving, yet do the exact same thing right in front of them? I understand the idea

that parents have been driving longer and feel they can maintain focus better during distractions

while driving than a less experienced teen driver, but Department of Transportation statistics

disagree. Adults are dying from this problem, too, maybe not at the same high percentage as

teens, but they’re not immune to the same consequences of texting and driving. This information

leads me to believe parents need to step it up as far as being good role models for their children

and not texting and driving.

Finally, I looked for alternative methods for stopping texting and driving. Other than just

trusting teens not to do it, there are a variety of suggestions from very low tech (thumb bands,

and bands around the phone itself which I previously questioned), to contracts using parent and

peer pressure to get kids to agree not to text and drive (which again I feel will not hold much

sway with most teens), to very high tech solutions. One such high tech solution was found from a

company called Cell Control (Guba). They have a product that will disable all cell phone

activity, both incoming and outgoing calls and texts while the vehicle is in motion. This is

something parents would buy and install on the teen’s cell phone. The phone will continue to

allow the phone to call 911 in case of emergency, but nothing else. It is said to be tamper

resistant so teens would not be able to override the system to make a “quick call” when driving.

There are many companies like this out there. Some require the driver to plug something into the

car itself that monitors their speed and cell phone activity and will send a report to parents if the

teen is using the phone while the car is in operation. Most of these do not prevent the phone from
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working, but basically it’s an instant tattling device to parents. It seems like teens could just

prevent this from happening by not plugging it into the car.

I guess after careful thought, I’ve decided that the best course of action to prevent texting

and driving is to treat it the way drinking and driving was treated when I was a teen. Everyone

needs to make a very visible stand that it’s not okay. There needs to be a “designated texter” if

necessary. I know I hand my phone to my kids in the car in case someone, usually my husband,

calls while I’m driving. I know they will be more likely to copy my actions than obey my words.

Also, I think teens need to make it clear to each other that their lives, and the lives of their

friends, are not worth that quick call or text. Peer pressure can do miraculous things when aimed

in a positive direction. I would like to see both parents and teens work together to be good

examples to those around them and end this 100% preventable cause of death in our nation.
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Works Cited

"Because Texting and Driving Kills!" Texting And Driving Safety. TextingThumbBands.com,

2015. Web. 6 Mar. 2016. <http://www.textinganddrivingsafety.com/>.

Guba, Robert. "Our Stories - CEO Robert Guba." Cellcontrol. 2017. Web. 04 May 2017.

<https://www.cellcontrol.com/blog/cellcontrol-our-stories-ceo-robert-guba>.

Madden, Mary, and Amanda Lenhart. "Teens and Distracted Driving: Texting, Talking and Other

Uses of the Cell Phone Behind the Wheel." Pew Internet. Pew Internet & American Life

Project, 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.pewresearch.org/files/old-assets/pdf/teens-and-distracted-driving.pdf>.

Miniño, M.P.H., Arialdi M. "Mortality Among Teenagers Aged 12-19 Years: United States,

1999-2006." Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. National Center For Health

Statistics, 5 May 2010. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db37.htm>.