Should Cell Phones be Ban from Driving or Do Away With?

Essay by Mariana63 September 2003

download word file, 5 pages 4.3

Over the last few years, there has been an up rise in car accidents and the probable cause is the use of cell phones. At one point drunk driving was the biggest cause of car accidents but now cell phone users are at risk as well. In some states across America, a law was made to ban cell phone use while driving but what about the other states. The probability of drivers talking on the cell phone and getting into accidents is only getting higher. The Government should ban cell phone use while driving in all states.

In the past five years, cell phone use while driving has become the next biggest problem for the government to handle. Even though some government officials feel it is not causing that much of a problem. In a recent study done at the turn of the century by Robert W. Hahn and Paul C.

Tetlock, cell phone use in cars will have caused about 10,000 serious accidents that year, leading to 100 fatalities. In 2002, another study was made by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. In their study, they found that drivers using cell phones are responsible for about 6 percent of U.S auto accidents each year, killing an estimated 2,600 people and injuring 330,000 others {f}. As you can see, within two years of research, the percentile has grown and something needs to be done.

The cell phone industry has very little defense against such accusations, with the exception of their great need during emergencies. The industry argues against the banning of cell phones while driving. Tom Wheeler, president and chief executive officer of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, the trade group for the cell phone industry, stands firm in his views that cell phones should not be banned.