Research Paper

Texting OR Driving?

Texting OR Driving?

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This research focused on what makes people use their phone while behind the wheel. As a team we worked together to form focus group to collect data for the research, since it is a social issue it was be good to hear everyone’s opinion about it. It has been proven that even though people know it is not safe to be distracted while driving people keep on doing it. So, the question is what motivates people to get on their phone while driving? Some interesting finding from our research was that even though everyone agreed on how dangerous texting and driving was, they all did use their phone. The same way, some where aware about the laws and regulations about using their phone while driving and they still do it. So now, does policies have to change or do people have to accepted the idea.

“One federal survey showed that 94 percent of Americans think it should be illegal to text while driving” (Neyfakhr, 2013, p. 4). Even though so many people agree on how dangerous texting and diving might be, majority still do it. People always say that being concentrated and focusing only in one thing always give better results or better perception of a situation. “A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute showed that drivers who are texting are twice as likely to crash, or almost crash, as those who are focused on the road.” (Neyfakhr, 2013, p. 2). It has been found that thing can happen during those seconds you have your eyes off the road. Changing the music channel, adjusting the air conditioner or looking down to pick up a water of bottle are all as dangerous as looking at your phone while driving. “The crash recorders indicated that the teen drivers involved in accidents had their eyes off the road for an average 4.1 seconds during the final six seconds before a crash. Auto industry studies have generally concluded that a driver should not have their eyes off the road for more than two to three seconds” (Eisenstein, 2015, p.6).

The United States Department of Transportation divides distracted driving into three main categories: visual, manual, and cognitive, all of which many drivers do routinely while driving (Srinivas et al., 2011, p. 7). Even thought it is common sense that the more thing you do at the same time, the less you focused you will be; people still do it. It is common that a lot of people want use their time efficiently and do all the phone calls, send emails and do all other things business or school related when they are in the car. But there’s a problem with treating the texting and driving threat as simply a matter of public awareness: Most people already know they shouldn’t do it. (Neyfakhr, 2013, p. 4). It is a matter of accepting what is happening and wanting to make a change. Now companies like AT&T and Verison have started their own campaign against texting and driving, trying to fulfill the social responsible side of the company.

At the heart of the texting and driving problem, according to researchers, is that people who habitually use their cellphones in daily life have a hard time stopping themselves from reacting to that multitude of triggers when they’re behind the wheel. (Neyfakhr, 2013, p. 15). It has become more automatic than what people think. As soon as we get an email, text or phone call without even noticing we pick up our phone because of the curiosity it creates. The same way that when people are gathered together as soon as a phone beeps everyone loose focus on the conversation and start to search for their phone in their pockets and tots.

As entrepreneurs are growing up the at the same time that technology is evolving, meaning it is difficult to become an entrepreneur to fight technology. People normally focus on how they can benefit from the improvement is technology instead of seen both side and study how technology might be influencing people in a negative way. It is important to realize now how people rely more on technology than on people when in the work place and how this new generation can’t live without their phone. Scott Tibbits is an engineer who came up with a system to block incoming and outgoing text while driving. He started partnering with a couple of insurance companies and also some telecommunication companies to bring this product to the market. (Richtel, 2014, p.2) Coming up with this idea is a perfect example on how technology and entrepreneurship work together to solve a problem that we created but developing the dependence on phone. This could be a solution to decreasing the reliance on communication and avoid distraction while driving. “You're probably wrong. According to a new study, people who believe they can multitask effectively -- say, talk on a cell phone while driving -- are the least likely to be able to do so” (Perry, 2013, p. 1). The more focused people are in what they are doing the better reflection they will have.

People say that the more you practice the better you’ll be at it. The younger the driver is the less experience he or she will have, since you have to be 16 years old to get a permit. “The age group with the highest incidence of distractions while driving was for people under age 20, where 16% of those involved in a fatal crash reported distractions while driving” (Srinivas et al., 2011, p. 7). The less experience the slower the reaction when presented with difficult situations.

“Federal reports show 963,000 drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 were involved in police-reported crashes in 2013, the latest year for which data are available. Those accidents resulted in 2,865 deaths and 383,000 injuries” (Eisenstein, 2015, p.8)

As technology grows, getting distracted seem to be a greater threat when driving. Now people tend to call each other through FaceTime which is the apple program that lets you do video calls from you iPhone, tablet or iPod. “A Wasilla woman received a misdemeanor citation Tuesday from Alaska State Troopers, who say she was pulled over for using her iPhone’s FaceTime app while she was driving on the Parks Highway” (Klint, 2015, p. 1) As we conducted our focus group the majority of the participants brought up how FaceTime is even harder than texting and driving. It is not possible to be looking at someone in a screen while driving and be fully concentrated on the road. People might even forget to look up because they are being too focus on what is going on in the screen.

However, policies and regulations have been made to protect the people and to try to create better and safe society. “Of the 31 states that had passed a texting-while-driving law during our study period, 24 banned all drivers, and 7 banned only young drivers (i.e., drivers younger than 21 years, intermediate license and permit holders, or both)” (Ferdinand et al., 2014, p.15). The United States is aware and concern of the consequences that have taken place because of some people not being responsible enough to respect themselves and others, knowing what the result might be; everything can wait. The most important finding, however, is that while the reduction in the number of accidents is substantial in the month following a ban, the effect begins to decline rapidly (Abouk & Adams, 2013, p.5). Like everything, people stop doing something because they are scared of being punished even though that might not be what they feel like doing. When there is a new law people tend to be scared of what they don’t know and tend to respect more and are afraid of being judged. “The authors found that texting bans were associated with increased collision claims. They speculated that this increase might be due to drivers hiding their phones from view to avoid fines and, in so doing, taking their eyes off the road more than they did before the bans” (Ferdinand et al., 2014, p.4). To hide something, means that you know that you should be doing it and that it is not right. People tend to get nervous of being caught by a police so they end up focusing more on looking for a police around and sending their texts than keeping their eyes on track.

Banning texting is a good start, but we won’t be happy until the driver’s hands are both on the wheel at all times (Lejune, 2013, p.3). Searching for a song on the radio or on your ipad is also a big distraction when behind the wheel. Its is even hard to change the music while driving, even though now some cars have the phones connect to the cars thru Bluetooth. It is said that in the future there will be automated cars and no one will have to drive, being able to to whatever they please in that time. “But until then, the safest thing to do in your racing, metal death cage is to sit in utter silence. Put both hands on the wheel, rotate your eyes through your mirrors every 90 seconds and just pray that no one kills you with their racing, metal death cage.” (Lejune, 2013, p.6).

People tend to compare two situations to express how one of them is not as bad, like texting and driving or drinking and driving. Instead of looking for excuse on which one is worst, we should start looking for a way to stop both. “Despite texting while driving being at least as dangerous as driving drunk, many more teenager (55 percent) believe drinking and driving can be more fatal than text messaging” (Abouk & Adam, 2013, p.7). The more educated people get about the topic the more change there will be, because like any accident it not always depends on our self. At times you could be driving safely, going at the right speed limit and respecting all signs but it the other person is not following all the regulations you might find yourself involved in an accident. “If those who text and drive underestimate the risk to themselves, they likely would not internalize the costs they impose on others” (Abouk & Adam, 2013, p.8). It is always to put yourself on someone else’s shoes. Imagine that a relative is injured or gets killed by someone that is not being responsible enough to care about those around them, that might be you when texting while driving.

Everything starts by being aware of something that does you good or something that might affect you. “Among novice drivers, dialing or reaching for a cell phone, texting, reaching for an object other than a cell phone, looking at a roadside object such as a vehicle in a previous crash, and eating were all associated with a significantly increased risk of a crash or near-crash” (Klauer et al, 2014, p. 21). When you are new at doing something it is important that you are being cautious and attentive to everything moving around you. Even though notice drivers are getting to know the streets, they are not scared of that the danger that goes hand in hand with driving. “Likewise, simulator studies involving adolescent drivers indicate that texting while driving increases the frequency of deviations in a lane relative to the position from the centerline” (Klauer et al, 2014, p.3) By going out of the lane you might cause a bigger collision that just you and the other car. If the driver in the car that is the lane next to you reacts by shifting to the other side, it may cause a three car collision, not counting that cars that are coming behind. I would stay that beginner drivers are not conscious of how big an accident may turn out to be just because of those two or three seconds your eyes are not on the road.

If the crash report says a lot of beginner driver are involved in many of the crashes I would say that the exams and the tests make sure to let them know how unsafe taking your eyes or hand of the wheel might be. I would say that after notice driver are involved in a crash that might have occurred because of one of these actions the driver has to go to driving school again and complete the hours before completing the test again and getting back on the street. This might make drivers more responsible as this generation start to get old.

According to Mack et al, a qualitative research method in which one or two researchers and several participants meet as a group to discuss a specific research topic is known as a focus group. We decided that doing a focus group would be the best option for this kind of research since it is a social issue. It has been proven that even though people know it is not safe to be distracted while driving people keep on doing it. Since a lot of people relate when talking about texting and driving, a focus group keeps people adding on to the conversation. “Focus groups are effective in eliciting data on the cultural norms of a group and in generating broad overviews of issues of concern to the cultural groups or subgroups represented.” (Mack et al, pg.2)

To get out information we divided into partners and got a quiet room where participants felt comfortable to get a discussion going. As a group we thought that a good number for the focus group would be 12 participants. We kept the groups concise and made sure everyone participated; without feeling the need to give plain answers because someone else explained the same idea he or she was going to talk about. We moderated the discussion and made sure everyone had their cellphone off to avoid distractions during the 60 minutes of discussion. For better result all the team members asked questions and kept the discussion going while the other one made sure to write down important point and records.

The team decided to organize focus groups with friends and family. We interviewed anyone that had a US license and have used a phone or any other distraction while driving; meaning we excluded children and people in prison. We talked to our friends and family which helped us know deeper information since they would probably open up to us even more than people that don’t know us as well.

Some risks that people encounter if the information gets leaked are, driving are legal or social issues. When we talk about the legal risks it means the violation of the law; depending on what states you live in. For example, in Florida is not illegal like it is in Georgia. The social problem that could be encounter is to be judge by others if they get to know you text and drive even though you know it could be dangerous. As a group we are not accountable for the information that other participants share even though they signed that the information discussed should not be talked about once the focus group is over.

At the beginning when we first meet with the participants we will give the consent form and let them know what we are researching about and what is our main goal out of this conversation. This will also let them know any other information like the duration of the meeting and the risk and benefits of such. We will let them know that their testimonies are safe and that no one will know about it and that we will create code names to secure their identity. We would let them know how important is to respect and not share the other participants experience.

As a group there was not that many problems encounter because people didn’t feel scared about talking about the topic since everyone in the group has been using there phone and driving at some point. As for the research we realized that people have the same ideology when it comes to texting and driving a lot of answers where the same. There was no disagreement that would make participants add more information, everyone agreed almost in all aspects.

References

Neyfakhr, L. (2013, October 6). Why you can’t stop checking your phone. Boston Globe. Retrieved November 20, 2015, from https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/10/06/why-you-can-stop-checking-your-phone/rrBJzyBGDAr1YlEH5JQDcM/story.html

Richtel, M. (2014, September 13). Trying to Hit the Brake on Texting While Driving. New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/business/trying-to-hit-the-brake-on-texting-while-driving.html

Klint, C. (2015, March 12). Trooper stop driver using FaceTime app on Parks Highway. KTUU. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/troopers-stop-driver-using-facetime-app-on-parks-highway/31754024

Perry, S. (2013, Jan 25). Think you're great at multitasking? think again. MinnPost.Com Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1281633731?accountid=36334

Eisenstein, P. (2015, March 25). 6 in 10 teen crashes involve distracted driving. CNBC. Retrieved November 18, 2015, from http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/25/6-in-10-teen-crashes-involve-distracted-driving.html

Lejune, T. (2013, July5). State Laws Ban Changing of Music While Driving. NEWSLO. Retrieved December 8, 2015, from http://www.newslo.com/state-laws-ban-changing-the-music-while-driving/

Srinivas, A., M.D., White, M., M.D., & Omar, H. A., M.D. (2011). Teens texting and consequences: A brief review. International Journal of Child and Adolescent Health, 4(4), 327-331. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1711615307?accountid=36334

Abouk, R., & Adams, S. (2013). Texting bans and fatal accidents on roadways: Do they work? or do drivers just react to announcements of bans? American Economic Journal.Applied Economics, 5(2), 179-199. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/app.5.2.179

Klauer, S. G., Guo, F., Simons-Morton, B., Ouimet, M. C., Lee, S. E., & Dingus, T. A. (2014). Distracted driving and risk of road crashes among novice and experienced drivers. The New England Journal of Medicine, 370(1), 54-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1473894730?accountid=36334

Ferdinand, A. O., Menachemi, N., Sen, B., Blackburn, J. L., Morrisey, M., & Nelson, L. (2014). Impact of texting laws on motor vehicular fatalities in the united states. American Journal of Public Health, 104(8), 1370-7. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1549549127?accountid=36334