Essay About Cell Phone And Patti Pena

Cell Phone
Essay Preview: Cell Phone
Report this essay
When a cell phone goes off in a classroom or at a concert, we
are irritated, but at least our lives are not endangered. When we
are on the road, however, irresponsible cell phone users are more
than irritating: They are putting our lives at risk. Many of us have
witnessed drivers so distracted by dialing and chatting that they
resemble drunk drivers, weaving between lanes, for example, or
nearly running down pedestrians in crosswalks. A number of bills to
regulate use of cell phones on the road have been introduced in
state legislatures, and the time has come to push for their passage.
Regulation is needed because drivers using phones are seriously
impaired and because laws on negligent and reckless driving are
not sufficient to punish offenders.
No one can deny that cell phones have caused traffic deaths
and injuries. Cell phones were implicated in three fatal accidents in
November 1999 alone. Early in November, two-year-old Morgan
Pena was killed by a driver distracted by his cell phone. Morgans
mother, Patti Pena, reports that the driver “ran a stop sign at 45
mph, broadsided my vehicle and killed Morgan as she sat in her car
seat.” A week later, corrections officer Shannon Smith, who was
guarding prisoners by the side of the road, was killed by a woman
distracted