You're on your way to school in your new car when you receive a text from a friend."It will only be a few moments" you think to yourself. You go to look through your phone and suddenly you've been charged with manslaughter. All it takes is a few moments where someone isn't watching the road for disaster to take place. Drivers should not be able to use cell phones in any capacity while operating a vehicle due to the risk of damage, injury, and death that they not only put onto themselves, but others and society as a whole.

The consequences of damage driving not only include harm to yourself, but also others. In 2017 alone, 3,166 lives were claimed by distracted driving (Currin). That number includes not only the people at fault, but also innocent people who have had their hopes and dreams unfairly ripped away from them. The repercussions of distracted driving extend far beyond those who are responsible for causing an accident because of it.

Distracted driving can lead to damage of not only individuals, but also society in general.

A study by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that distracted driving accounts for $129 billion, or 15 percent of the overall societal harm caused by motor vehicle (Anderson). That number implies that a massive amount of resources, productivity, and human life were completely lost at the hands of distracted driving; this number doesn't even account for what goes unreported. Society as a whole is damaged by distracted driving because of the immense loss of lives and productivity associated with it.

According to a recent study, cellphone bans are not effective in stopping accidents as a result of distracted driving. The study concluded that frequent cellphone users were more likely to participate in risky behaviour regardless if they were making use of a cell phone while driving (Morton). Later in the article, it is mentioned that regulation on cell phone use is reasonable as long as it is enforcement properly. Unsafe driving behaviour is reduced as a result and this could potentially save lives. Even if the impact of a cell phone ban would be small, it's still there, and that matters because those lives do matter.

The use of cellphones while driving could be the deciding factor of who lives and who dies. Though the impact of such a ban may be small, it's still there. Anyone could be a victim of distracted driving; this ranges from friends and family to complete strangers. Crashes as a result of distracted driving are an unfair punishment to those who are focused on the road and even people off of the road such as pedestrians. In conclusion, there should be a full on ban on cell phone use while driving.

Works Cited

Anderson, Dianne. "NHTSA: Distracted Driving Crashes Cost Americans $129 Billion a Year |."

EndDD, 3 June 2014,

https://www. enddd. org/distracted-driving-research/nhtsa-distracted-driving-crashes-cost-

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9-billion-a-year/.

Currin, Andrew. "U Drive. U Text. U Pay." NHTSA, 8 May 2019, https://www. nhtsa. gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving.

Morton, Carol Cruzan. "Why Cell Phone Bans Don't Work." Science, 10 Dec. 2017, https://www. sciencemag. org/news/2012/08/why-cell-phone-bans-dont-work.         