We are now all mostly aware of the dangers and lethality that drunk driving can bring. However, there is now another rapidly growing and genuinely concerning issue that is now starting to stand right beside it, and that is distracted driving. Distracted driving is defined as the practice of driving a motor vehicle while actively engaged in another sort of activity, mostly using cellular phones. In the year 2017 alone, there have been recorded 3,166 deaths caused by distracted driving. And among that staggering number of casualties, 599 of it isn’t behind the wheel at all. Meaning, this dangerous practice is not only putting the driver’s lives in danger, but also pedestrians, cyclists, and more. Texting and browsing your phone while driving is indeed dangerous, but that isn’t the only way in which your phones can prove to be a hazardous distraction. It has also been shown that texting while walking may directly lead to accidents. This underlying issue is deserving of the utmost concern, especially with over 96% of Americans in possession of a mobile device.
A study at the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark that is lead by Roman Povolotskiy investigated the percentage of head and neck injuries that can be directly blamed to cell phone use. They dedicated over 20 years intensively collecting data with regards to the issue to understand further and ultimately come into a conclusion on how many head and neck injuries do cell phone use cause. Find out more about this study.
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