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How Cell Phones Increased the Rate of Car Accidents in the US

You may feel inundated by stories of deadly car accidents on the news. Unfortunately, crashes, both fatal and less serious, happen regularly all around the United States. Cell phones play a major role in the frequency of car accidents. Learning about the various ways that cell phones can lead to car accidents can help you to prevent such tragedies from occurring.

Texting

Text messaging is a major contributor of car accidents. It is literally impossible for a person to text message and to look at the road at the same time. Many distracted driving accidents in the USA happen as a result of drivers thinking that they can just take their eyes off the road quickly and send a text message. In those few brief moments, the driver in front of you could jam on the breaks, or a child could dart into the street. These incidents can occur whether you are sending or reading texts while driving. If you find yourself tempted into texting when driving, turn the notifications off when you're at the wheel.

Playing Music

Scrolling through a playlist to find a favorite song while driving down the road is dangerous. Some drivers will even switch between apps to get to their desired tune. In the time that it takes for you to find a song, a dangerous accident could occur. One option is to stick to listening to the radio while you're in the car. Another possibility is to create playlists of your favorite songs to listen to when driving. Before you drive away from the curb or back out of the spot, start up the playlist.

Using Social Media

Scrolling through social media also means that your eyes aren't focused on the road. When people are caught in traffic, some of these drivers will start checking for updates on their social media pages. Even if deadly accidents don't happen as frequently in bumper-to-bumper traffic as they do in high-speed situations, you could still end up hitting the car in front of you and ruining the rest of your day and damaging your vehicle. Save social media for when you're out of the car.

Making and Taking Phone Calls

Even though your eyes can be on the road while you're talking on the phone, you are still not totally paying attention to driving. In other words, the conversation on the phone can distract you. Furthermore, in order to pick up the phone or to dial a number, you have to take your attention away from the road for a brief period of time. Plenty of cars have systems that allow you to engage in hands-free phone calls. When using this feature, remember that the main focus of your attention still has to be on driving.

Cell phones have absolutely contributed to the problems with car accidents in the United States. These devices take the driver's attention away from operating the vehicle. Recognizing how dangerous and deadly cell phones can be on the road can help encourage you to stop using your device when driving.

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