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Beginning over a century ago, the statutes and laws against drunk driving have increased in order to protect citizens. The first law against drinking and driving was created in 1910 by the state of New York, prohibiting driving while intoxicated (Drunk Driving Timeline). Although drinking and driving has been the leading cause of automobile accidents and deaths, texting and driving has become the recent fatal phenomenon. Distracted driving can be defined as taking part in any non-driving activity that will divert the driver from his/her primary task of driving (At Issue: Distracted Driving). Therefore distracted driving can be classified into any number of categories. Drinking and driving falls under the cognitive subcategory because it takes the drivers mind off of their primary task. Texting and driving falls under the visual subcategory because it forces the driver to take their eyes off of the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the age group with the highest percentage of distracted driving is drivers under the age of 20 (At Issue: Distracted Driving). Texting and driving and drunk driving are two separate wrong decisions, but the risks are very similar when put into perspective. Research by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that each time a driver reads or sends a text message, his or her focus is taken off of the road for an average time of 4.6 seconds, an approximate time for a car going 55 mph to drive the length of a football field (Copeland). During their distracted moments, drivers are unaware of their surroundings thus the probability of them getting into an accident increases dramatically. Texting and driving has recently been related to drunk driving. Drunk driving is not only harmful to the driver, but poses a threat to other cars and pedestrians around. The drivers reaction time is detrimentally slowed as their blood alcohol concentration is increased; therefore the driver is not capable of properly maneuvering a vehicle.

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Both of these fatal phenomenons have similar consequences for the offenses. Each violation has a high probability of killing not only themselves, but also others on the road or nearby. A person who is texting while driving will receive a ticket from the police officer that pulled them over. The driver will also have points taken against their drivers licenses, which may result in a suspension or revocation of the license. If a person is caught while driving intoxicated, the officer is required to arrest the driver immediately. From there, the driver is fined, sentenced to alcohol and driving classes, and the license will be suspended or even revoked. There are more severe consequences if anything were to happen to either passengers or bystanders while the driver was texting or under the influence. Both drunk driving and texting and driving have been argued as the leading cause of accidents in America. Researchers at the University of Utah claim that drivers who use cell phones while driving are, as impaired as drunk drivers with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% (Hanes). Researchers at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center battle that there are other objects inside and outside of the car that are more distracting than cell phones (Cell Phone Use). Both universities have conducted trials and thoroughly researched these statistics that help judiciary branches create laws to prevent these types of flaws from happening. Texting and driving has become the new fatal flaw in drivers since the invention of cell phones and the evolution into the smart phone. In September 2007, California passed a law that prohibited 16- and 17-year olds from using any kind of electronic device while driving (Aksomitis, pg.48). Although these devices are distracting to all aged drivers, the 16- and 17-year olds are not as experienced on the road, therefore more likely to get into an accident. Research has been focused on texting and because the inherent risk of getting in an accident increases 23 times (Copeland). From 2009, the percentage of drivers ages 18-29 who admitted to texting and

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driving, rose from 29% to 49%. This form of distracted driving is no longer limited to just teenagers and young adults. Since the beginning of the era of smart phones, the percentage of adults who admit to the use of their smartphones while driving has also increased. These statistics dont only apply to younger ages, adults aged 40-49 have increased 47% to 82% their use of cell phones during the time period 2011 to 2013, adults 50-64 have increased from 44% to 64%, and adults 65 and older have risen from 23% to 39% (Copeland). These statistics prove that texting and driving is not only occurring in young adults, as previous research has shown, but that adults are beginning to add to the statistics. A number of studies have shown that talking on a cell phone has become far more dangerous than in the past. Hand-held phone use in cars has been banned in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands (Hanes). A survey taken by AAA in 2009 showed that almost 92% of drivers believed that talking on the phone and driving was a serious hazard, as well as 97% stated that texting or emailing while driving was unacceptable under any condition. Although, almost 67% of those drivers admitted to talking on their phones while driving, and 1 in 7 admitted to texting and driving. AT&T has created a campaign against texting and driving, called It Can Wait. Over 200 other organizations have joined this national cell phone company to put a stop to the drastic ascent of deaths related to texting and driving. The campaign especially has been targeted towards a teen audience. Finger bands were passed around so that if a driver was to look down to text or email they would be reminded by the band to put the phone down and focus on the road (Svensson). The original model of the modern Breathalyzer, a device used by the police to determine the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in a persons bloodstream, was created in

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1938 by Dr. Rolla N. Harger, the device was then perfected into todays model by Robert Borkenstein in 1954 (Drunk Driving Timeline). The use of the Breathalyzer has helped to show that there is not a single positive factor about drunk driving, it only causes chaos and endangers every single aspect of life outside and inside of the drunk drivers car. A threat that is often overlooked by adults is alcohol usage by teenage drivers. Its consequences and ramifications are underplayed as well. More and more high school students are reporting that their parents are allowing them to consume alcohol either within their family home, at a party that the teen hosted, or at a party they were invited to outside of their home. This study, done in 1981, by Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), created in 1981, showed that 37% of teens reported that their parents allow them to drink alongside the parents, which since 2010 has increased by 10% (Wallace). In the same time frame, the organization reports that parents have allowed their children to drink without them present has increased from 21% to 29% as well as an increase in alcohol included parties from 36% to 47%. Timothy Brown works at a research center where he put hundreds of drunk drivers behind the wheel in the $100 million National Advanced Driving Simulator to test the differences of driving abilities. His research has been helpful in the battle to lower the blood alcohol concentration from 0.08 to 0.05 as the legal intoxication limit. These studies and observations are predicted to save 500 to 1,000 lives a year (Gregory). Extensive research has proven that unintentional swerving and the lapse of focus occur at a BAC as low as 0.001. Dropping the BAC would cause a lighter person to drop to two drinks or less and a heavier person to drop to three drinks or less. Although a person is still at a high risk to be in a crash with a BAC of 0.05 (38%), a driver with a BAC of 0.08 is 169% more likely and 400% with a BAC of 0.10 (Brown). MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, has successfully created their own

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campaign to increase limits on drunk driving since the 1980s. Since 1983, crashes involving drunk drivers have shrunk from 21,113 to 9,878 in 2011 (Brown). Distracted driving is the largest cause of automobile accidents. They cause the driver to become unfocused from their primary task of driving, cognitively, visually, or manually (At Issue: Distracted Driving). Drunk driving has always been understood as the cause to the majority of the distracted driving crashes. Although since the turn on the era and technological advances in the cell phone invention, texting/emailing/calling and driving have become increasingly more dangerous than drunk driving. Studies upon studies have shown that the reaction times are almost equal. The addiction of technology and the love of independence will soon overcome the statistics of drunk driving as it reigns under the new title of fatal phenomenon.