Texting While Driving

Specific Purpose: I want to persuade my audience to stop using their cell phones while driving a vehicle because it is extremely irresponsible and dangerous.
Central Idea: Using a cell phone while driving is dangerous to yourself and others on the road and is one of the top reasons for car accidents.
Attention Grabber: February 16th, 2010 my best friend was driving her dads new truck he just bought. She was on her way to my house. I texted her at 3:13 to ask her where she was at 3:15 she was involved in a 2 car crash involving her dads new truck and a little 2001 2 door Honda civic. She came out with only a few bumps and bruises but it left the mother in the other car dead and the father critically injured. Now many of us see commercials about texting and driving and we still do it everyday, the problem is most of us think that something like this could never happen to us. Maybe you think you are a really great driver or a really great “texter” and that allows you to do both driving and texting or playing on your phone at the same time. Well sorry to break it to all of you, but it is just not possible.
Introduction

In our technologically advanced world that we live in today, cell phones are at the center of our lives. Not Only do they keep us in contact with each other, but they also serve as a form of entertainment. The great majority of people are constantly on their cell phones, whether they are at work, at home or even while they drive. Today, I would like to persuade all of you to stop using your cell phones while performing the important task of driving. Not only will it save your life, but also the lives of others around you. According to the GHSA (Governors’ Highway Safety Association) texting while driving by any age in North Carolina is ban. This law became affective as of December 1, 2007.As you can see, this topic directly affects all of us and that is why it is so important to me that we take this law seriously while in Clemson or not. I am going to show you how texting and driving is portrayed in the media, and also science’s stance on texting and driving and the statistics that are involved with it.

(Let’s first take a look at how texting and driving is portrayed in the media)
Body

1. According to an article done by Larry Copeland on March 8, 2010 published in USA TODAY, there was a teenage girl by the name of Mariah West who, like many of us, was an extremely devoted texter. She was so good that she could text at dinnertime under the table, without anyone noticing. All of her friends had seen her texting and driving, they tried to warn her that it was dangerous. She just did not seem to think so. Yet her luck ran out. The day before graduation, she was headed to a Minor League Baseball game texting one of the players she was going to see, she lost control of her car. Mariah passed away that day, the last text she received was “Where U at?”. Mariah’s story help start a campaign by AT&T about texting and driving, the theme of it is, no text is worth dying over. Many of you have seen the graphic commercials for this campaign.
Transition: If the commercials and stories of lost loved ones are not enough to convince you to stop texting and driving, maybe some scientific research will help.

There is a lot of research done by many different organizations on distracted driving and the use of cell phones while driving. Here are some of the key findings. Oprah had a noted researcher, Dr. David Strayer, from the University of Utah come on her show to speak about distracted driving on January 15, 2010. Dr. David gave some simulations of what we think we see when we are texting and what we actually see. He found that talking on a cell phone quadruples your risk of an accident, and when you are text messaging the crash risk goes up to eight times that. Show first view of driving and then the view while you are texting or on a phone. When you are texting and driving you get tunnel vision, this can cause you to miss pedestrians or approaching vehicles on the road. It also severely weakens your peripheral vision. As you can see, using your cell phone while driving impairs your ability to safely navigate the roads. According to Textingwhiledriving.org last updated on October 25, 2010, In the year of 2008 about 16% of all fatal crashes were caused by distracted driving. Which the majority of distracted driving involves using a cell phone. It also had a study conducted comparing the distance required to stop while driving 35mph relative to an unimpeded driver. A texting driver travels 25 more feet that the unimpeded driver when required to stop, while a drunk driver travels 4 more feet. It is a scary thought that texting while driving is worse than driving drunk! Although this is not to encourage drunk driving, its just to show how dangerous texting is. Lets get down to some hard facts, according to an article by Abhijit Naik in the Buzzle published on July 15, 2010, 47% of adults resort to texting at the wheel as compared to 34% of teenagers. 75% of adults use the phone to make conversation while driving, and 52% of teenagers do as well. Overall, 81% of the United States population admits to resorting to texting while driving a vehicle, and about 28% of car crashes per year happen due to SMSing(short message service which helps you text faster) while at the wheel. Now remember earlier how I stated that texting while driving and driving drunk give nearly the same results? Well here they are, according to Frank Drews , June 29, 2006 in the U News Center, people are just as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08 percent. He also found that at any given moment, 10% of all drivers are talking on a cell phone. These are some scary figures and facts.
(Transition: Now that we have all this information, what can we do about it?)

Think about it, is a text message really so important that it has to be done right away? I am sure that you can wait until you reach your destination to use your phone, or if you have a passenger with you, then they can text for you. Also if you remember, it is illegal to text or email on your phone while within the USA. If you are found using your phone, you could face up to a $100 fine, according to GSHA on February 16, 2010 on Count on News.
Conclusion

As we have seen, not only does texting or using your phone while driving impair your ability to drive but it is also dangerous for the people around you. I have always been an avid texter, but after doing all this research and reading the statistics, I can proudly say that I will no longer text or email with my phone while I am driving because no text is worth my or any of yall’s lives. If this speech has persuaded you to stop texting and driving, which I hope it has. I hope that you will all come up and sign electronically onto Oprah’s No Phone Zone., which is a pledge to stop texting, making calls or completely stop using your phone in the car.