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English 135 : Texting and Driving Final Draft

A final draft on the topic of texting and driving.

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    Running Head: Texting and Driving Final Draft Texting and Driving English 135 Professor Wright DeVry University In your proposal regarding texting and driving, you argue that stricter laws banning texting while driving would be more effective than current technological solutions such as apps and devices. Considering both perspectives, how can the development of technology (e.g., apps, devices) work in tandem with the implementation of stricter laws to create a more comprehensive solution for curbing texting and driving incidents? In your response, make sure to discuss the potential advantages and drawbacks of both approaches and explain how they can complement each other. Your response should be at least 750 words in length.

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    Texting and Driving Final Draft 2 Texting and Driving In 2012, Texas college student Chance Bothe was texting that he needed to stop texting because he said that he could die in a car accident (Zafar, 2012). He was driving at the same time, causing him to drive into a cliff. He miraculously survived but not without serious injuries – traumatic brain injuries, a fractured skull, a crushed face and a broken neck (Zafar, 2012). In 2013, 19 - year old Elizabeth Haley Meyers was on her way to Royal Farms in Maryland when she hit 30 - year old Wesley Roberts who was driving his motorcycle. She was texting while driving. Roberts died, leaving behind his children, a brother, and a father while Meyers faced the possibility of being sentenced up to ten years in prison and having to pay thousands of dollars in fines (Valcourt, 2013). Indeed, texting and driving is a growing problem in our country. According to Pascual - Ferrá, Liu and Beatty (2012), 25 percent of vehicular accidents, that is, 1.6 million accidents, every year can be attributed to cellphone use and texting while driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also stated that “teens are six times more likely to crash while dialing a cellphone and 23 times more likely to crash while texting” (Mays, 2014). The reaction time of a person who is texting while dr iving becomes similar to that of a 70 - year old who is driving without a cellphone (Mays, 2014). Pascual - Ferrá, Liu and Beatty (2012) also found that the effects of texting and driving are comparable to the effects of alcohol use and marijuana use on driving. In this regard, software developers are developing smartphone apps and devices that would prevent users from using their cellphone while driving (LaVallee, 2009). They claim that it would be impossible to keep people from using their cellphones while driving as it has become a major part of their daily lives. Therefore, the apps and devices that prevent users from texting and driving would be the best way to control the people’s cellphone usage while driving (Farrell,

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    Texting and Driving Final Draft 3 2013). However, there are also those who claim that these apps will only serve as an additional distraction to the driver (Farrell, 2013). There are also those who claim that stricter laws would be more effective in preventing people from texting and driving (Morelli, 2014). The purpose of this proposal is to identify the measures that would be most effective at preventing people from texting and driving. Although I’m a novice scholar, I will use scholarly and reputable sources that will support the points I want to make and that will establish my credibility. I will use extant research (e.g. Pascual - Ferrá, Liu & Beatty, 2012; LaVallee, 2009) and credible news sources (e.g. Farrell, 2013, Morrelli, 2014) to provide evidence of the causes and effects of texting and driving and to illustrate the effectiveness of the measures we currently have for preventing texting and driving incidents. It is important to establish effective measures for preventing people from texting and driving because it has caused the loss and destruction of so many lives, especially among the youth. With everyone using a smartphone, merely telling them to not text and drive will not be very effective. This has led to other measures being developed for preventing such. In this regard, this paper posits that although the use of apps and devices that prevent texting and driving are helpful for curbing the habit, stricter laws that ban texting and driving would still be more effective because these will encourage people to take texting and driving seriously or else be charged with a primary offense and penalized. Texting started to become popular in the US in the early 2000s as the various telecommunications companies provided better packages for their subscribers and enabled internetwork text messaging (“A brief history of text messaging,” 2014). However, as people started to use texting for most of their communications, the problem with texting and driving also started to arise.

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