It is an enchanting Sunday morning. You are driving down a noticeably empty road while the sun is gleaming behind the occasional wave of clouds. Suddenly, that familiar ting of your cell phone goes off and your instincts tell you to reach for the most distracting object you could use while driving. In the split second it took you to reply to your best friend you glance up to find yourself unavoidably driving head-on to a semi truck. Diverting your attention to even the simplest of tasks instead of focusing on the road and your surroundings can result in disastrous events. Distracted drivers are taking over our roads even with the new laws and updated driver’s ed tests that have been enforced. For this, society can blame the fact that drivers’ cognitive abilities have been …show more content…
Core of Distracted Driving
While distracted driving continues to occur, state and national governments have begun to enforce and toughen laws and driver’s tests. The Senate has implemented large fines to discipline drivers with amounts ranging from one hundred dollars for the first offense, two-hundred and fifty dollars for the second offense, and five-hundred dollars for the third offense (“Toughen Laws…” NP). Additionally, a Massachusetts law created in 2010 restricted writing or reading texts on a handheld device while driving, yet it allowed GPS use and making handheld phone calls. When the law was first enforced, only 1,000 drivers received tickets while in 2016 that drastically increased to 8,600 tickets (NP). The Department of Licensing spokesman, Brad Benfield, says they wanted to go in depth about the effects of not only driving intoxicated, but driving distracted too. They believe teens need to know the dangers and potential results of driving distracted. He says that with everyone relying on cell phones now, they had to “make sure that type of information