In 2009 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law making it illegal for those in California to read or send text messages while driving. The bill was designed to keep drivers’ hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.

Since then there has been a 47 percent drop in cell phone related car crashes in California, largely attributed to the no texting-while-driving ban.
Yet four years later, as the clock chimed midnight on January 1, a new law was implemented – one that made it legal again to “text” behind the wheel.
Under this new law, drivers over the age of 18 are allowed to use hands-free software applications that enables users to listen and respond to text messages out loud. The law also allows drivers to touch their phones to activate and deactivate the hands-free functions.
Though this new technology is designed to be safe to use while driving, any source of distraction takes drivers’ attention off the road.
On any given day, nearly 9 percent of all people driving in California are texting or talking on their phones, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. Not only is this a large number of people being careless, but they are also being selfish, putting not only themselves in danger, but all other drivers on the road.
In today’s highly mobilized world the leading source of distraction while driving comes from cell phone use, according to a study done by the National Highway Safety Administration. Eighty percent of all car crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes are caused by people who are distracted while driving.
Though not all distractions are a result of cell phone usage, the majority of preoccupation is from phones.
Most people don’t understand the full extent of what can happen when being distracted while at the wheel. Every day, more then 15 people are killed and over 1,200 are injured from car crashes involving a distracted driver, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As technology continues to advance in the 21st Century, there have without a doubt been large advances in improving safety for using phone while driving. But in order for the most positive and beneficial effects to set in, the use of cell phones should still be banned while at the wheel.
Instead of using our new technological advances to create software or read texts allowed, we should be designing applications that make it impossible to text on a phone while operating a motor vehicle.
Apple has recently created a new mode on iPhone called “do not disturb.” This setting allows texts and calls to come in, but phones do not light up, ring, or vibrate. Preferences like these should be required on all phones and should be required to be used in all cars.
At a minimum a text takes your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds, at which traveling an average of 55 miles per hour is like driving the entire length of a football blindfolded, according to Distraction Driving. This leaves ample amount of time for an accident to occur.
By prohibiting any cell phone use at all we are taking out a leading cause to distracted driving as a whole, whether it be making a call or texting.
This new law has some serious drawbacks that were overlooked and should be reconsidered. It has to some extent overruled the no texting-while-driving ban that was implemented for our safety.