Eyes On the Road

According to Edgar Snyder & Associates, “21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% every year.” A scarier statistic is that almost “50% of all drivers between 18-24 are texting while driving (Edgar Snyder & Associates).” As a teenager that falls in between this category I think that texting while driving is a bad thing.” I think that you should be pulled over for texting, but only if you are doing something else that is against the law for example if you are speeding” (Dineen). I don’t text or talk on the phone while I am driving. I have the person in the passenger seat text for me. I think that texting while driving is a bad thing because it takes your vision off the road. Even if you are fast and you don’t have to look at the keys you shouldn’t be texting. While you are driving you should always have your hands on the wheel, you should have the person sitting next to you text for you or you should wait until you stop driving to get a hold of the person. But I do know people that do text while driving and it is a bad habit to have.


What the current laws are that are for Massachusetts, is that they don’t have a law that bans hand-held cell phones, young drivers all cell phone ban, or texting ban. All they have is that school bus driver’s cell phone ban (Cell Phone Laws). Also the laws that they have now for cell phone bans, is only a primary law. This means that it hasn’t gotten passed yet by the State Representative. While you are texting while driving, it takes your eyes off the road so you can’t see what is going on around you. After interviewing Officer Dineen, he had also said the same thing. But he gave an example, which was that “he saw a women driving and she was swerving all over the road and he had thought that she was under the influence of alcohol. But when he had pulled her over and asked her what she was doing, she said that she was texting” (Dineen). How I think that the laws should change would be that they should not have a hand-held cell phone, all young drivers should all have cell phone bans and lastly, there should be a texting ban. Now a days everyone knows how to text. Rather then back in the day when it was the 90’s people didn’t know that texting even existed. When I was younger, I didn’t know that texting was invented. I didn’t know what texting was until I got to middle school, because my older siblings used to text all the time.


I believe that texting while driving is the most dangerous thing that you could possibly do while you are driving. I think that because you can get into any accident at anytime. When you are texting, your eyes are off the road for possibly for a split-second. Even if you think that you are fast at it and you don’t have to look at the keys, you could hold it up infront of your steering wheel, which could still cause you to get into an accident, “civil infraction, possible cause to pull you over also” (Dineen). One must stay focused on the act of driving, distraction could cost lives. What I think that he is relating to is that besides texting, you should have another reason for being pulled over. So if they see that you are texting, they couldn’t automatically pull you over, you have to be doing something else for the reasoning to be pulled over. “A civil infraction would be speeding, driving erratically; your car hasn’t passed an inspection. He said that even when he is “on the job” he even texts his daughter. He says that even though it is bad, but when his daughters texts him he usually always answers them back. Which would take his eyes off the road but then he would also be stopped somewhere. He also said usually when he is replying to one text message; she sends another one because he is slow at texting “(Dineen). I think that since he is a police officer, he shouldn’t be texting while driving either.


There are no laws against using your cell phone while driving. I think that there should be a law that has to ban cell phone usage while driving. If I were to write the law about cell phone usage while driving, I would say that you shouldn’t be able to use your phone at any time. Unless you had an ear piece, and then you should be able to. But the major thing that they should ban is texting. Even if they don’t have another reason to be pulled over, if they do see then texting while they are driving they should be pulled over automatically. After interviewing Officer Dineen and asking him what he thought the laws should be, he said that they should have a civil infraction, and possible cause for being pulled over. So if they are speeding they should be pulled over, but also if they are found texting at the same time as they are being pulled over they should be given a ticket for that too. After hearing what he had said about the law and what he wanted it to be changed to, I think that it is a good thing to do, because if they are just texting, then it wouldn’t make sense to be pulled over for. They should have another reason for being pulled over besides texting.


I think that not only teenager’s text while they are driving, but I think that adults do it also. I also think that teens do it more often and that they are fast and they can move there fingers faster than adults. Even though I am fast at texting, I don’t do it. I have been in the car with someone while they are texting and even though they are fast at it, they were still driving erratically. As they were texting, they would have me hold the wheel for them. Teenagers sometimes don’t have to look at what they are typing while they are. But also I’m sure that adult’s text also as they are driving, even though they aren’t fast. “Adults do it also, they do it worse because they can’t text fast enough” (Dinneen). After hearing what Officer Dineen has to say about adults also that text while driving, besides teenagers doing it also. I think that it is a bad thing for both teenagers and adults to do because it takes both of the teenagers and adults eyes off the road. When adult’s text I think that it scarier because they have their eyes off the road for a longer amount of time then a teenager would. Adults are slower at texting then teenagers are because they have to look at the keys while they are driving. Teenagers remember where the keys are on their phone so they don’t have to look at the keys when they are typing. But it should also become a law for not texting while driving because you are more paying attention to what the text says than rather what the road is like in front of you.


This is an important topic to me because teenagers now text all the time. They can cause accidents while they are texting because they take their eyes off the road. When they take their eyes off the road they are dangerous to themselves and to other drivers. After looking at the statistics and what my interviews have said, they make it seem like the laws have to be passed. Since I am a young driver, I think that the law should be changed so that Massachusetts is a safer state.








Works Cited

Officer Dineen, Personal Interview. 9 April. 2010
Cell Phone Laws. “Laws restricting cell phone use and texting.” 1 April 2010. http://www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx .
Cell Phone Statistics. “Car Accident Cell Phone Statistics & Driver Text Message Facts.” 1 April.2010 http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car accident/cell/statistics.html

The Contender Reading Review

The Contender

Harper Trophy

Published 1993

In the book The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, Alfred Brooks is a high school student that is a dropout. He is scared for his future and he works at a grocery store that is leading him nowhere. He does boxing and he goes to a place where all of the champions learned how to box.

" You wanna fight somebody you fight me,"said the enormous belly,pushing Alfred out of his way. "I say aint no man,neither."(pg.71)

Throughout the book it has shown the stuggles that he went through with his family and also what he had to go through when he stopped going to school. Since he stopped going to school it had showed the different situations that he had gone through and what he had to overcome. He didnt know what to do with his future. So thats when he thought about going into boxing. This quote shows what he had thought about before he started to box. What he had to say to people so that he could get himself pumped up and looked forward to what he had to do during the fight.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I enjoy reading sports books because I think that since I play sports that it would be more enjoyable for me. If I didnt play sports or had no idea what some of the other sports did then I wouldnt want to read them and I wouldnt be interested in reading them. After reading this book, it has really opened my eyes to show that even no matter what sports you play or if your in school or not, that there is many difficult situations in your life that you would come across and that you would have to work through. Also that when you play sports it could take your mind away from the hard situations in your life that you are going through and that sooner or later you will be able to over come them along the road.

Is Long John Silver a Violent and Friendly?

When you see a pirate or hear about one, you would automatically think that they are rude and wouldn’t care about anything else but them. Majority of people probably do think that pirates are rude and don’t care about anyone else. After reading the book and watching parts of the movie, the pirates act violent towards each other but then they also act friendly. Some of the pirates never got along so then in that case they were always violent towards each other and they weren’t as friendly as other pirates were. Jim and Silver have always stuck together ever since Silver held him hostage. He told him to go onto the other ship to see what they were saying and what their plan was so that when they would have bombed them, they would know what to do. So he hid into a barrel until they were done and then he went back onto his ship and told the captain what they had said and what their plans were.

After reading the book and also seeing parts of the movie, I thought that Long John Silver is both violent and friendly. In Treasure Island, Stevenson makes the main character; Long John Silver likeable and kind character. Long John was a hard worker and he was always likable towards everyone. At the beginning of the book, Long John was rude and he always wanted people to follow him and he wouldn’t be nice to anyone because he wanted everyone to do whatever he wanted to be done. Since he is one of the major pirates on the ship, he wanted everyone to go along with what he thought and not have them disagree with him. Silver had a lot of more power than the captain of the ship even though he was the cook. He knew what to do when they were bombing them and he knew how to survive and how to come back in other situations.

Since Long John wanted everyone to follow what he wanted, even though he was the cook, he didn’t want them to disagree with what he wanted to be done. He would always tell them even though he was the cook, he would treat them like they were handsome and a common mutineer and pirate. If they didn’t want to do that then he said for them to go hang themselves. "You're either my ship's cook-and then you were treated handsome-or Cap'n Silver, a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang!" (p. 190). This is showing what he wanted to be done. And if they didn’t follow what he wanted then he told them to go hang themselves. Even though he was the cook on the ship, he still wanted them to treat him like he was the captain and to follow the rules that he wanted to be done. If you didn’t follow what he wanted to be done then he would send you to be hanged. He didn’t care what u were towards him, if you didn’t follow him then you would have to leave and go get hanged.

After Long John and Jim met up with Billy Bones, all they thought about was the ‘black spot’."And now, shipmates, this black spot? 'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck and spoiled his Bible, and that's about all" (p. 289). This quote is showing that even though all of their shipmates that they had, they are showing them where the black spot is and that’s where they have to go to find the other pirates. Even though after Smallett showed them the black spot, he had said that it wasn’t as bad as they had thought it was going to be because of how much they didn’t know how to get there and what to do to fight them. Also how that Dicks crossed Smalletts luck and spoiled his bible and that’s it meaning that after showing him where the black spot was, that it wasn’t as bad after showing him everything about it and that he knew what to do with the other pirates and what to do when they found the other ones so that they could fight them and show that even though there are two different types of captains and also that Long John tries to act like a captain, he gets the pirates follow what he wants to be done and not just have the captain do all of the work. He can be a cook but he can also act like he is the captain of the ship and get everything done the way that he wants it to be done.

Captain Long John and Jim have always been close. At the beginning all of the pirates though of Silver as a mean pirate. At the middle and the end of the book, he wasn’t like another pirate. He was always kind, friendly and he was also a Villon at the same time. He would always have these talks with Jim, but once he had had a talk with him and this is what he had said to him; "Now, you see, Jim, so be as you ARE here," says he, "I'll give you a piece of my mind. I've always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome. I always wanted you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman, and now, my cock, you've got to. Cap'n Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up to any day, but stiff on discipline. 'Dooty is dooty,' says he, and right he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is gone dead again you — 'ungrateful scamp' was what he said; and the short and the long of the whole story is about here: you can't go back to your own lot, for they won't have you; and without you start a third ship's company all by yourself, which might be lonely, you'll have to jine with Cap'n Silver "(p.180). This is saying that Silver has always liked him and that he has the spirit like no other and when he sees Jim, he can picture himself as a young boy. He has always wanted a young and handsome gentleman for himself. He wants Jim to always be there because they barely have anyone left, since the doctor is gone and Smollett isn’t the same as Jim is.