We Have the Right to Use Cell Phones While Driving :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

We Have the Right to Use Cell Phones While Driving Imagine driving in a car and not being able to adjust your radio, roll down your window, or even talk to your passenger. This may sound a bit extreme, but little by little a person's rights are being infringed upon by those who think that using a cellular phone while driving should be illegal. Using a cell phone while driving is no different than a mother tending to her children in the backseat, a person eating in a car, or even someone engrossed in conversation with their passenger. Can these rights be taken away, can common sense be legislated? Cell phones first became available in the year 1984 and have only grown in popularity since (Stutts et al.). Today there are over one hundred and twenty-eight million users (Pickler). In recent years, cell phones have been in the spotlight for causing drivers to be distracted, resulting in a number of crashes. New York has become the first state to ban the use of hand-held phones when driving on public highways. This new law went into effect on December 1, 2002. Drivers may only use a hand held phone "in an emergency, to call for help or to report a dangerous situation." However, drivers are allowed to use hands free devices such as speaker phones ("New. . ."). Currently, there are thirty-eight other states with bills like this one in the process (Breslau and Naughton 46). Many are upset about these laws because data on the actual number of cell phone related car accidents is not complete. According to a spokeswoman for Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, " There ar e not a lot of substantial findings" (Pickler). It's too early to tell if New York's new law is lowering the number of deaths caused by cell phones (Alonso-Zalvidar). Although around 2,600 people die each year from cell phone related accidents, a cell phone user only has around thirteen chances in a million of dying in a cell-phone related automobile accident. This is three times less than the chances of being killed by not wearing a seatbelt. Other motorists and pedestrians have a four in one million chance of being killed by a driver using a cell phone; the chance of getting killed by a drunk driver is four times as high (Pickler). Granted, every single human life is important, but these figures show that cell phones pose only a very small risk.