Argumentative Analysis

There are two reasons: a cognitive distraction caused by the conversation, and the physical distraction of manipulating the phone. Numerous studies have determined that using hands-free devices to talk while driving does not completely eliminate the distraction that it causes. Marcel Just, a neuroscientist and director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University, did a brain study and found 37% reduction in brain activity while driving and listening to a cell phone conversation at the same time . The reduction was in the parietal lobe, which is an important brain’s area for vision and navigation processing. David Stayer is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for the Prevention of Distracted Driving …show more content…
Eliminating the cognitive distraction may require eliminating the actual use of cell phones while driving; one way is to make the cell phone use, even hands-free, illegal behind the wheel. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) studied the effects of handheld cell phone laws and found 43% decrease in usage while driving . However, IIHS also found no decrease in the number of crashes . Another approach is public education; Transportation Research Center at the University of Nevada observed about 40,000 vehicles from 2003 to 2005 and found a significant increase in seat belt usage rates caused by the media and enforcement campaigns . This shows that media plays an important role in spreading the awareness of the dangers not wearing a seat belt. (this can be applied to the cell phone use as well.) AT&T has a campaign called “It Can Wait”, and it focuses on public education of the dangers of distracted driving. AT&T is using a virtual reality simulator to allow students to experience the danger of being distracted by using a cell phone while driving . According to AT&T, 86% of participants said they would never text and drive after going through the simulating experiment . This is important because it shows that public education campaign by AT&T is effective; it increased the understanding among people that using a cell phone behind the wheel is distracting and hazardous. Another approach is technological fixes; many cell phone apps lock up the phone while the car is in motion, so the driver cannot text, call, e-mail, or surf the Web. For example, DriveOff is an app that can detect when drivers are traveling at more than 10mph, and it will block incoming calls and text messages as well as turn off other distracting apps . It has not been documented whether this solution is effective; however, it has

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