Running Head: MOBILE DEVICES AND DRIVING

Community Report Problem: Mobile Devices and Driving

University of Texas at El Paso
Rhetoric & Composition 1301
Karla Janet Madriles- Ortiz

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Abstract
Alarming road and highway statistics have increased as the result of texting and driving. People
are killed and wounded everyday, thus demanding a solution from both the government and
technicians. Teens and adults are both aware of the danger texting and driving implies. However,
mobile devices seemed to have paired up with the human conscious, provoking withdrawal when
we dont have it in our hands. Using and electronic device while operating a vehicle increases
exponentially the chances of having a car accident compared to when there is texting or
navigating involved. Drivers engaged on their phone are usually confident on their abilities to
multitask, but according to psychologists, they are instead being distorted from reality. Studies
from different University professors, have used from car simulators to actual driving tests for the
purpose of searching why the urge comes up in the first place.
The text explores why drivers are not able to disconnect from their phone while performing a
demanding task. The paper focuses on the cognitive aspect of any given automobilists, and how
directing their attention somewhere else other than the road can affect their driving performance.
Solutions have ranged from banning phones while driving to rewarding those who carry it, but
manage to not use it. Regardless of the struggles authorities are going through, drivers persist on
putting more importance to the small screen than the road ahead.
Keywords: Mobile devices, road, driving performance, danger, navigating, calling

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Community Report Problem: Mobile Devices and Driving

Introduction
Driving and texting has become one of the most dangerous deeds due to the increase of
smartphone devices. Public officials and safety advocates have called for a technological
solution to avoid any further road and highway tragedies. The deadly habit has been studied by
numerous institutions across the country to analyze why drivers persist to multitask. The
National Safety Council estimated bout 213,000 car accidents involving drivers texting in 2011.
Americans, who now call it a "national epidemic," have taken actions into their local
governments to prevent the loss of innocent lives on the roads. Teenagers are the main target
because of the new urges they undergo, such as glancing at social media. Enforcement has
included banning texting and calling while driving, but the likelihood of a driver obeying is
almost non existent. Psychology experts have labeled the problem as a new kind, considering
that our smartphones have been embedded into our conscious. Despite efforts of ending any form
of contact between the driver and phone, automobilists insist on focusing their attention on their
electronic devices, causing terrible car accidents that jeopardize innocent lives.
Haunting Road Data
As of 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced 18% of all
fatal accidents to be the result of drivers being involved with an electronic device distraction.
The percent derived into 3,328 people killed and 412, 000 wounded. The Virginia Tech Institute
found text messaging to be 23 times more susceptible of creating a car crash than driving
undistracted. "The popularity of mobile devices has had some unintended dangerous

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consequences. " (Federal Communications Commission, 2015) Ten percent of 15- 19 year old
drivers have been involved in fatal crashes and reported to be distracted with mobile devices.
The time it takes to get a driver's attention off the road and begin processing what's being show
on the screen is 5 seconds." Through what might seem an insignificantly small amount of time, it
is the equivalent to a driver riding across a football field blindfolded," (National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, 2012).
About 82% of teens from the ages of 16- 18, own a cell phone from which 52% admitted
to calling and 34 % to texting. The alarming part is the fact that teens who text, spend 10% of
their total time driving outside their lane. 1 in 5 drivers, of all ages, confessed to using social
media applications or surfing the web while driving. Justifications include; reading is safer than
composing, they only do it once, and holding it up to the windshield will not decrease their
visibility as much.
Drivers' Danger Awareness
On April 2012, AT&T conducted a survey among commuters, consisting of teenagers,
ranging from 15 to 19 years old, on their texting habits. Almost 97% admitted to the danger of
driving and texting, including a 75% who said it was "very dangerous." As the series of
questions progressed, nearly 71% admitted to either texting or glancing at their phone while
driving or at a red light. The conclusion was evident, drivers are aware of the disastrous
consequences and are willing to do it anyway. Drivers will accept to the deed, yet, interestingly,
they are also resourceful when it comes to finding justification. Their idea of multitasking is
completely distorted from reality. They're convinced that the text they're about to send will not

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be the cause of anything catastrophic on the roads, but they intellectually know what the hazard
is capable of.
Dr. Earl K. Miller, professor from the Neuroscience department of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, asserts that drivers who are the most confident at multitasking, tend to
actually be the worst at it. Furthermore, Miller affirms, "They dont multitask because they are
better at it. They multitask more because they are sensation- seeking and impulsive," (Fox News,
2014). When a driver is texting and driving, they are not monitoring the road, instead, they are
relying more on the previous brain's prediction that nothing was there. A few seconds ago we
could have seen an empty road, it is not guaranteed that it will still be in those conditions while
our attention is directed somewhere else. We have very limited capacity to perceive our
surroundings, thus we do it through small fractions, while our brain fills in all the blanks. Drivers
constantly check their phones due to a release of dopamine, a chemical from the brain that
produces one to feel happy. A notification or a message can release dopamine, therefore, when
we don't use it we create a sense of withdrawal.
Putting it to the Test
Dr. Dario Salvucci and Dr. Niels Taateg, professors in the field of Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence, created a scenario with an artificial car to put the concept of texting and
driving to the test. Subjects, with driver's license or permits, were asked to perform several tasks
including vocal, procedural, aural, and visual on their mobile devices. After rigorous tests, the
conclusions revealed a decrease on drivers' reaction time, more cognitive demand, and constant
lateral deviation. Driving requires heavy procedural workload, leaving little processing capacity
available for other tasks. The results appeared to be obvious, "Tasks involving significant visual

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demand have the greatest potential for negative effects on driver performance," (Salvucci &
Taateg, 2011).
In 2011, Dr. Jerry L. Cook from the California State University and Dr. Randall M. Jones
from the Utah State University, conducted an experiment on undergraduate students from three
different campuses. The task commenced with an introductory electronic survey regarding the
number of citations, crashes, and use of mobile devices while driving. Secondly, subjects were
asked to participate on a test drive to see how much resistance they could put against using their
devices. The aftermath was not surprising, 74% of the 274 subjects accessed their phones while
operating the vehicle. The high percentage had obvious correlation to the subjects' high amount
of citations and accidents. Cook and Jones used the Jessor and Jessor's 1977 Problem Behavior
Theory as a framework to explain their findings in a simpler way. "Problem behaviors do not
occur in isolation but rather develop in patterns called problem behavior syndromes, " (Cook &
Jones, 2011). The theory's psychological model attempts to explain dangerous behavioral
outcomes such as consumption of substances, deviancy, or using mobile devices while driving.
The syndrome exists when a cluster of behaviors moves from conventional, socially acceptable,
to unconventional, socially unacceptable, behaviors. Conventional actions are harmless to
society, while unconventional post risk and illegal conduct. In this experiment, conventional acts
include using a phone, the unconventional part takes place when the phone is being accessed
while driving. Ironically, subjects described texting and driving as "unacceptable" and
acknowledged the danger it implies, yet it was more important to continue the cyber
conversations.
The last study was conducted by doctors Rob Gray and Jaimie McNabb from the Human
Systems Engineering department of Arizona State University. The investigation consisted of

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undergraduate students driving a car simulator while strictly using a social media applications
such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. The outcome revealed a greater processing and
attention demand for images. Students became easily frustrated, decreasing their overall driving
performance. As the analyzing went more in depth, the researchers found out subjects were not
holding simple conversations through their mobile devices. Many admitted to "sexting" and
arguing, causing severe speeding and drifting through lanes. "It is expected that texting while
driving will become and issue among policy makers, business people, industrialists, researchers,
and the general public, " (Gray & McNabb, 2016). The experiment took into consideration
passengers, which in most cases are children, thus becoming an even larger stimulus to enact
legislation.
Solutions
Solutions have been offered multiple times to decrease the amount of accidents, however,
they fail since drivers always find a way to get away with the dangerous deed. Banning texting
and driving is a law that most people consider a "suggestion." Other attempts include working
with phone companies to detect when customers are driving, and thus being able to block their
incoming and outgoing messages. As a disadvantage, drivers are compromising any emergencies
that could arise in a driving trip. A third attempt, includes rewarding motorists if they
successfully complete a driving trip without using their communication devices. Although it
sounds simple, the mechanics behind them are very complex. That's not the hardest part of
making the concept work, the challenge is getting drivers to be involved in the proposed
solutions. Innocent lives are constantly being affected by people who rather focus on a tiny
screen than on the windshield. If death is not a stopping point for those behind the wheel with a
phone on their hands, then what will be?

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Conclusion
On June 8 of 2015, a bus crashed against a car in Tennessee, causing the death of two
girls and a teacher. Driving and texting had been the source of the accident. The bus driver,
James Davenport, was found dead at his home as a release of his guilt. Shocking stories like the
previous one are not enough for those operate vehicles and their smartphones at the same time.
Everyday nine Americans die as cause of texting, calling, or navigating the web. Now in the 20 th
century, the probability of a car crash involving a cell phone is 40%. Society tends to blame
teenagers, however, adults are just as guilty of committing the same act. Reinforcing drivers to
keep their hands off their phone is nearly impossible. Lives are being constantly endangered for
both the driver and passenger. The issue has engaged professions, from Engineers to
Psychologists, to work together to slow down the damage driving and texting is causing. The
effort seems to be approaching from nearly every way, however it will only be achieved if
automobilists decide to eliminate their habits of using their mobile devices while driving.

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References
Cook, J. L., & Jones, R.M. (2011). "Texting & accessing the web while driving:
Traffic citations & crashes among young adult drivers" Traffic Injury Prevention. Taylor
& Francis Group, 12:6, 545- 549. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2011.620999
Federal Communications Commission. (2015, November 4). The dangers of texting
while driving. Retrieved from https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/dangers
texting-while-driving.

Gray, R., & McNabb J. (2016). "Staying connected on the road: A comparison of different types
of smart phones use in a driving simulator. " PLoS ONE,
11:2.doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148555

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2016, January 21). Distracted driving:
Facts and statistics. Retrieved from
http://www.distraction.gov/stats-researchlaws/factsand-statistics.html.
Salvucci, D. D., Taateg, N. A., (2011). The multitasking mind. New York, NY. Oxford
University Press.

Technology Fox News. (2014, November 10). The dangerous psychology of texting while
driving. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/11/10/dangerouspsychology-texting-while-driving.html

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