One of the undisputed marvels of the modern information society is the cell phone. Indeed, not only do cell phones allow a person to communicate with others in the traditional manner of a telephone, but they also are portable computers that put the power of the internet into the palm of a person’s hands. Despite their many benefits, cell phones or the rather the activities that people use them for, can be extremely distracting and disruptive. To be sure, the fact that cell phones can be taken everywhere and provide constant and instantaneous communication’ cell phone owners tend to use them continuously. In other words, cell phones tend to draw people’s attention away from others tasks that they are currently performing. While such distraction may be annoying in most situations, such as at a social function; they can also be dangerous and even deadly, such as when they occur while a person is operating a motor vehicle.
While using a cell phone while driving is not necessarily in and of itself dangerous, the fact that it can distract or take the driver’s attention away from recognizing and responding to the many elements that proper driving involves is extremely dangerous. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), to understand how using a cell phone while driving can be dangerous, one must first consider what skills a driver needs to master in order to safely operate a vehicle on the road or rail. Operation of a motor vehicle is not a singular action. Rather it requires coordination of multiple actions including but not limited to watching the road ahead for hazards, monitoring the speed and car functionality, applying breaks, steering, and shifting gears when appropriate. While these actions are commonly believed to occur simultaneously in the brain, the fact is that the brain process them separately switching quickly between actions that it perceives as requiring more attention (NSC). The brain, however, has a “limited capacity for attention” and if there are too many sensory inputs, the brain while not process the information it takes properly (NSC). That is to say, its ability to switch attention will be downgraded. Accordingly, under normal circumstances, without other non-driving related distractions, driving can still be dangerous activity. For example, speeding or following an another vehicle too closely reduces the time required for a brain to switch attention in the event that its needs to suddenly reduce speed or steer away from a collision.
When cell phone use is an added element to the driving circumstance, the brain’s ability to switch attention is extremely impaired. First, using a cell phone while doing another task, such as talking to another person the workload that a brain is required to perform. An increased workload, slows the brain’s ability to process information and “attention shift” (NSC). This might not matter when talking to another person because walking is not a cognitively demanding task (NSC). In essence, walking requires less brain power. Operating a vehicle is also, as mentioned, a cognitively demanding task. Naturally, any attempt to perform two cognitively demanding tasks will necessarily impair the performance of one or both. Generally, because driving is the more demanding task, a person’s ability to drive is most likely be the more impaired of the two cognitively demanding task (NSC).
Since cell phones and car use is so common, the dangerousness of their misuse in combination cannot be underestimated. According to a 2012 report by the NSC, “distracted driving now joins alcohol and speeding as the leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes” (NSC). Accordingly, action must be taken to stop or decrease the occurrence of using a cell phone while driving. The most effective way to stop driving while being distracted by a cell phone is through criminalization, education, and technology.
Criminalization refers to a governmental initiative to draft and enact laws that that it a crime to use a cell phone while driving. Currently, 20 states have some form of regulations on the using a cell phone while driving (IIHS & HLDI). For example, in Washington State, driving while using a cell phone can lead to a U.S. $124 fine. In California, on the other hand, the penalty for a fine of U.S. $76 for the first offense, and U.S. $190 for the second offence. While these laws are important first steps in confronting the issue, they are nevertheless too limited. Most importantly, in the majority of the country there are simply no regulations on the use of a cell phone when driving. What needs to be done is the establishment of a legal framework that lies between the outlawing of driving above the speed limit and operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs, criminalizing the use of a cell phone while driving should involve a combination of fines, jail time and license suspension. Such a framework should put the cell phone using drivers on notice, that using a cell phone while driving will not be tolerated and failure to obey the laws will be punished in manner that is painful enough to deter its continued existence.
Education, in this context, refers to a comprehensive and extensive public information campaign focused on enlightening the public about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. An appropriate model to emulate might be the Mothers Against Drunk Driving campaigns. In terms of using a cell phones, the campaign should at a minimum include information and statistics as to how using a cell phone while driving leads to decreases in performance. The campaign should also include statistics of the consequences that using a call phone while driving have be experienced. Third, the campaign should explain the punishments that will or could be imposed if a person is found to be using a cell phone while driving. Last, but not least, the campaign could and should recruit a broad range of spokespeople from government leaders to celebrities to average citizens to spread the words and ideas of the campaign.
Perhaps the simplest and most effective way to stop or limit the use of a cell phone while driving is with technology. Since cell phones are technical devices that operate and functions via information technology, it is absolutely possible for hardware and technology companies to create the means to control how a smart phone is used. For instance, a number of cell phone makers and mobile network providers have been developing technologies that would prohibit a phone from “receiving call or texts” while driving (III). This occurs through the temporary disruption of the signal or service when a phone is in a car (III). Other technologies might work to rather than disrupt the service, switch the service to a vehicle’s on board system so that a driver might be able to “hands free” answer a call but would be prohibited from surfing the internet or reading/typing text messages. The promise of a technological answer to using a cell phone while driving is that it can be accomplished with minimum interference and maximum potential, as the only requirement would be for the hardware or software developer to include the technology in all new phones and/or make software that is backwards compatible with all current phones.
So while using a cell phone while driving is increasingly rising to be one of the most important risks of modern driving; there are a number of measures that can be taken to stop or limit its occurrence. These measures include criminalizing the use of cell phones while driving, educating the public about its dangers and using technology to automatically or more easily allow for its temporary disablement when in a vehicle.
Works Cited
Insurance Information Institute (IIS). “Distracted Driving.” III, Jan. 2016. Web. http://www.iii.org/issue-update/distracted-driving
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute (IIHS & HLDI). “Distracted driving.” 2016. Web. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/laws/cellphonelaws/maphandheldcellbans
National Safety Council (NSC). “Understanding the distracted brain: Why driving while using hands-free cell phones is risky behavior. NSC, Apr. 2012. Web. http://www.nsc.org/DistractedDrivingDocuments/Cognitive-Distraction-White-Paper.pdf
