I. Introduction
A. Topic
1) Research question: How important it is to consider the distraction issue for drivers, and what should be done to prevent texting and driving taking into account the consequences?
2) Working thesis: In order to decrease amount of the car crushes and deaths on the road, it is essential to provide and increase both awareness and responsibility of drivers regarding distracting factors that are named among the most often causes of the car crashes.
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3) Angle: Today, in the informational era, people depend on modern technologies. Often it looks like addiction. For example, smartphones are inherent part of modern people’s life. Due to this fact, drivers frequently prefer to type messages and talk on their phones instead of paying attention to the road. Of course, it distracts them from riding. In the end, these factors influence their driving quality and attentiveness. Drivers must be informed about those factors, and there is a necessity in limiting or even forbidding smartphones usage during driving vehicles.
B. Context
1) The importance of this topic is hard to overemphasize. Distracted and inattentive driver risks his own life and the lives of his passengers, other drivers, and pedestrians.
2) As a citizen of the big city and the person from one of the risk groups, I want to pay attention to this topic in order to prevent and decrease number of road accidents. For this purpose, I will provide information about factors that could distract drivers, statistical information that relates to the topic, and offer few ideas that could improve current situation.
C. Audience
1) My primary audience is all kinds of drivers and people who relate to driving.
2) My secondary audience is made of my professor and fellow classmates who are citizens like me. Some of them drive own cars and also relate to this topic as passengers, drivers, and pedestrians.
3) For this topic, my audience can be divided in two groups: first one would be attentive and responsible drivers who understand the importance and dangers of driving, and second group would be those riders who are more irresponsible and believe that they could deal with several activities at a time, and that texting on the phone during driving process does not distract them. My main task is to convince them that their carelessness could cost them and their loved ones life with the help of statistical and other information.
II. Evidence
A. Research collected so far.
Firstly, I want to define what the term “distracted driving” stands for. According to the Distraction.Gov, “distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving.” All distractions endanger driver, passenger, and bystander safety. There are many different factors that could distract person from driving. Texting, using a cell phone or smartphone, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, grooming, reading (including maps observation) is not a full list of those factors. However, these issues may be sufficient to cause road accidents. For the increased understanding of problem scale, there are some statistics and information taken from distraction.gov and World Health Organization. Different “studies suggest that drivers using a mobile phone are approximately four times more likely to be involved in a crash than when a driver does not use a phone” (WHO, 2011). Also, according to distraction.gov, in 2014, 3,179 people were killed, and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers. There is another fact that should be noticed: the main risk group of this topic consists of the drivers aged 15 to 19. Youth is more exposed to distraction, and their smartphone and social networks passion often cause adverse consequences. So, why did I stop on texting during driving out of all distracting factors? Due to the necessity of visual, manual, and cognitive attention from person (driver), this one is the most dangerous, and it often causes road accidents and numerous deaths. With respect to different sources, there are nine Americans on the average killed every day from motor vehicle accidents that involve distracted driving, such as using a cellphone, texting or eating.
B. Research to be collected.
The information that also could support my argumentation is an additional medical information from governmental sources like World Health Organization. It explains how distraction process works and how it influences on the quality of driving in scientific way. In other words, this information is crucial for evaluating how distraction factors change person’s behavior during driving and other similar activities.
III. Conclusion
I claim that people must provide special education on the distraction factors in driving with the help of local governments. There is a necessity to distribute different information about those factors and increase drivers responsibility and awareness. Also, it will have a positive effect if the government imposes different laws and policies, which main purposes are to prevent and forbid drivers’ interaction with any type of distracting factors during the driving. In fact, governments of the many countries have already provided different laws in order to stop growth of the car crushes and deaths on the road. In my opinion, different educational events and sources also could give a hand in this topic.
References
Distraction.gov. Facts and Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2016, from http://www.distraction.gov/stats-research-laws/facts-and-statistics.html
World Health Organization. Mobile phone use: A growing problem of driver distraction.
(n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2016, from http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/road_traffic/distracted_drivi ng/en/
