Annotated Bibliography: Factors That Distract Drivers
Today, Internet and smartphones are inherent parts of human life just like driving. However, mixed together, these activities could lead to the awful consequences, and even may cost human life. So, it is important to improve awareness and responsibility of the drivers around the world. In order to reduce distraction rate for the drivers, it is crucial to implement laws, policies, as well s study programs. It will help to decrease the amount of road accidents. The most risky group is youth aged 16-20. These young people are more affected by modern technologies than elder generation. They even depend on them. People often don’t realize the significance and danger of distracted driving; they think that they can deal with few activities at the same time. Driving and texting is not the best way to prove this. Due to inattentive driving, drivers risk killing themselves and innocent people like other drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.
Copeland, Larry. (2012). "Simulator Shows Young Drivers the Risks of Distraction." USAToday.com, USA Today . Retrieved from <http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-06-10/distracted-driving-simulator/55677790/1>.
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Another great way to educate young drivers about distraction factors is a simulator. One of the companies that is engaged in this field is called Virtual Driver Interactive Inc. This simulation main purpose is to show the potential consequences of messaging while driving. Most of the students who were texting on the road have got into an accident. Also, this program shows what consequences could be. Due to this, readers may experience great educational effect, which, in the end, might increase the value of this kind of interaction and study process. The main sponsor of this simulator and program is The Ohio Department of Transportation, which has spent a lot of money to establish the educational program oriented on the young drivers. Also, it should be noticed that the ticket for this simulator costs less than $30. This affordable fee made this program available for everyone, including teenagers. Results of this simulator are often positive: most of the tested teenagers who initially didn’t care about the issue eventually realized consequences of texting and driving.
My assessment: This article could be used like a great sample of action, which government and private organizations could engage in order to increase general awareness and understanding about the main issue of this proposal. It also shows that there are no indifferent people: every participant wants to warn, decrease, and prevent as many car crushes as possible.
Cruz, G. (2009). "Distracted Driving: Should Talking, Texting Be Banned?" Time , Time Magazine. Retrieved from <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1916291,00.html>.
Researches shows that only 2 percent of people are able to conduct multiple tasks without any harm for both attention and concentration. So, it is clear that the remaining 98 percent are not able to handle several tasks at once. The most common example is texting when driving. This article highlights threats of such activity and shows what researches have done. Its author, the Professor of Psychology David Strayer from Utah University, tells that many states have already prohibited smartphone usage during driving. He added that hands-free technology devices do not increase road safety. The main distraction consists of people who talk on the phone and remain focused more on the sound than on the visual aspects. It is clear that it influences driver’s reaction and can cost him a life. Also, the author noticed that people talking on the phone behind the wheel have worse reaction than people who have 0.08% percent of alcohol in the blood.
My assessment: This article could be used in my argumentation on the importance of providing laws, policies, limitation, and even prohibition of the mobile usage behind the wheel. In order to decrease the amount of road accidents, it is essential for the government and other related organization to provide different modifications for the road safety policy.
Distraction.gov. Facts and Statistics. (n.d.). U.S. Department of Transportation. Retrieved May 20, 2016, from http://www.distraction.gov/stats-research-laws/facts-and- statistics.html
This article was published on the governmental website in order to provide information on the distraction factors that affect the quality of driving. It also recalls other different distracting factors like eating, talking with passengers, grooming, and reading that have a vivid impact on the quality of driving. However, this article notices that smartphone usage and texting in particular is the most alarming distraction because it requires manual, visual, and cognitive attention from the driver. The report uses many researches and statistics from various governmental organizations and offers pretty reliable and frightening figures about road accidents and phone usage during driving. Governmental organizations like CTIA, NHTSA, and VTTI are most related to this issue. The authors did a great work and conducted researches in order to show consequences of the careless and inattentive driving.
My assessment: I was already using some information from this article for my proposal paper, but, in fact, there are many facts and statistics about distraction factors that could increase awareness of the drivers in order to decrease deaths on the road. One could use this information to support the argumentation about importance of providing educational companies, policies, and restrictions on phone usage during driving.
Mohan, D. (2006). Road traffic injury prevention training manual . Geneva: World Health
Organization, 103-109.
Unit 7 from this book, which is titled “Formulating and Implementing Road Safety Policy”, tells about the importance of road safety policy and explains how both processes of formulation and implementation work and can be used to provide quality and helpful policies. Author also notices that even though policies were formulated, if they are not implemented properly, there will be no expected effect. There is a detailed step-by-step examination and analysis of the policy formulation that will be useful for both governmental staff and common people who care about this issue. As the result, this work shows how it is essential to start working on this issue as soon as possible, because every second delay costs human life. In the end of this unit, there is a Trainee’s evaluation, which includes questions on Unit 7 and helps to summarize the received knowledge.
My assessment: This work could expand the boundaries of understanding significance of the road safety. Also, despite the distraction between drivers, there are many different factors that could lead for awful consequences. They include: aggression on the roads, driving in a drunken state, a fake driver's license, etc. This work may be used like an argumentation for the disputes concerning who must take care of this issue and who is responsible for formulation and implementation of road safety policies.
Richtel, M. (2009). "Driven to Distraction; Drivers and Legislators Dismiss Cellphone Risks." The New York Times. The New York Times . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/19distracted.html?pagewanted=all.
Almost every modern person has a smartphone. Sometimes it looks like some kind of addiction, especially for the youth, its target audience. In order to reduce the amount of distraction, many car-making companies invented numerous hands-free devices like voice navigation and calls. However, different researches show that even these devices are not effective for the reduction of the distraction during riding, which means that risks of getting into and road accident still remain. One of such surveys conducted by the National Mutual Insurance showed that 81 % of modern Americans with phones talk and drive at the same time. Article also highlighted other distraction factors mentioned above. For an additional example, the author tells about Ford’s new free-hand voice technology: even its developers recommend avoid it during driving.
My assessment: This article clearly shows that the different modern technologies are not the best way to reduce distraction between drivers. On the contrary, it could only worsen the situation on the roads. I have chosen this article as an example of a great contrast effect to explain which actions should be taken as well as develop study purpose in order to increase awareness and understanding of importance of road safety.
