Distracted Driving Essay

Distracted driving is a recent epidemic that is “killing 5474 (16%) people and injured 448,000 (20%)” (Overton). Drivers are multitasking constantly when they are on the road. It is not just the different tasks they need to perform while driving, such as: looking into the rear mirrors, stepping on the gas and brake pedals, or calculating the stopping distance between their car and another obstacle. They are distracted by other tasks that involves electronics: looking at the gps, texting a friend, or even calling their family members. Distracted driving comes in many different forms, it is not restrained to just electronic distractions. And the effects of these distractions are catastrophic. Accidents involving the use of electronics causes greater damage than any other kind of collisions. Distraction is
Even though distracted driving causes disastrous accidents, some people still believe that they are experienced drivers who could perform another task while driving at the same time.
Since the start of the cell phone era, rates of vehicle collisions, caused by distracted driving, has increased dramatically. The rates of car accidents in the U.S. “rose 7.2% last year to 35,092—the largest increase in 50 years—and distracted driving played a role in 10% of those deaths (Darrow). The main cause of distracted driving is the use of an electronic device while driving. This causal factor can be extremely lethal when the driver is moving at a great speed, for example, when they are on the freeway. Moving at a faster speed decreases the vision of the driver, reducing the range to only a small portion of the road directly in front of their point of view. Therefore, along with