Name: Taylor Novales
From: San Francisco, California
Votes: 40
When I am asked to offer a definition for “impaired driving,” I often answer that it is being behind the wheel while not being fully conscious or present to be able to be in full control of your actions, which affects your driving performance. Despite this definition being presumed as a universal understanding, it often gets misunderstood, even by licensed drivers. I believe this happens because driving itself is not taken seriously after passing the driving course and test. Based on what I have witnessed as a passenger, driver, and even a viewer through a TV, driving without much care for others’ safety is too normalized. It is made evident when the drivers are eating, doing makeup, or texting while driving, and even simple driving with one loose hand on the wheel. Anything that constitutes under the definition of unsafe driving is normalized in every vehicle, as if this carelessness on the road in front of them will not impact their own or other people’s lives. Not only this, but I believe that everybody holds the assumption that impaired driving only applies to drunk or drugged driving, creating a lack of understanding of what being impaired actually means.
According to the CDC, with Impaired Driving Facts, there have been more than 11,000 deaths due to drunk-impaired driving and drivers. This number has increased by 14.3% within the past year, when this article was published. Furthermore, it was found that 62% of those who died in these accidents were the drivers themselves, which demonstrates the lack of self-awareness from the drivers with their lives. The impairments of alcohol and drugs impact drivers’ reaction time, distortion of their vision, and their coordination and judgment. The driver’s reaction time is slowed when needing to make sudden turns or adjust to changes on the road. They are also unable to drive straight within lanes, and even blur their vision, which causes a lack of awareness of possible obstacles or even creates obstacles that do not exist. Another impairment is driving while on the phone, which causes drivers to be distracted by having their eyes off the road, hands off the steering wheel, and their minds off the act of driving entirely. The driver’s reaction time is also slowed due to needing to drop the phone and place their hands back on the steering wheel and refocus their attention to the road, which can all be a millisecond too late and could be prevented if they just remained still the entire time. Lastly, fatigue is another impairment that slows a driver’s reaction time and reduces their concentration. These factors lead to making poor decisions like drifting out of your designated lane, missing cues with traffic lanes and lights, and even losing consciousness mid-driving. Each of these impairments, and more, puts not only the driver’s life at risk, but also any passengers in their cars and bystanders outside of the vehicle.
When it comes to my perspective on impaired driving, I have not had any specific experiences or stories that have changed it; rather, I have been told a story that strengthened my view. I have always believed that drivers should be at their full concentration, every passenger in the vehicle should have their seatbelts fastened, to not have music playing too loud that it will take your mind off the road, and to stay off any phones or food while driving. If it is too distracting, the driver must pull over so they can act without putting lives at risk. This is a basic stance; however, it was empowered by a story my college roommate shared with me regarding her experience with impaired driving. Her boyfriend, at the time, was driving them back home from an outing, and he was heavily distracted by his phone and the music playing on the radio. Due to him constantly looking down, trying to shift through different radio channels, and finding the perfect song, he was seconds too late in hitting the brakes and avoiding the suddenly stopped SUV in front of them. This led to them completely slamming into the car at full speed, and they both ended up in the emergency room. My roommate ended up getting a concussion from the head impact and her ear bleeding out, which led to her needing surgery to repair her hearing and the physical appearance of her lobe. I touched her lobe once, and you can feel less cartilage in one compared to the other.
Though she is fine now, fortunately, she has to deal with trauma while driving or being in a car with somebody who isn’t her parents. I remember she called me because she was having trouble getting in her own car, afraid to drive herself, as she refused to be behind the wheel for years since then. Fortunately, she has overcome the fear and trauma her ex-boyfriend has induced in her from impaired driving, and she can now drive herself and others in the car. However, it must be said that this story has stuck with me ever since she told me and ever since she called me, shaking and hyperventilating at the mere thought of being behind a steering wheel. Through this, it shaped my awareness into hyperawareness of my surroundings and how to care for myself and others while driving. Even the slightest glance away can cost you the longest stare at a hospital light; it is best to avoid that possibility at all costs.
Driver’s education and traffic school courses support future and current drivers in handling their vehicles with full responsibility while on the road. However, since driver’s education is typically done once before people receive their licenses, many of the basic rules of the road and safety hazards can slowly blur together over time. There is a lack of consistent practice of even the slightest safety and responsibility awareness on the road; it is as if it is a free-for-all on the roads. Furthermore, traffic school courses can be cheated on or not taken seriously, so the information will not stick in the driver’s mind long enough that they’ll likely offend again. I believe that these sets of education should be made mandatory to be completed every few years, so the driver can be refreshed on the rules and regulations, leading to a normalization of safe and fully conscious driving. How I imagine this happening is that if everybody has to go through the training multiple times in their lives, it will shift the current standards of driving into safer and hyperaware ones. Furthermore, these programmes are proven effective in real-world situations as they give real-life scenarios and examples that the driver must walk through to learn how to handle them. Also, the programs are accurate to how the roads have always functioned, so all the knowledge is impossible to render useless. These consistent programs and trainings can remind us to drive safely, not impaired, as there are fatal consequences to our actions.
Preaching about what should be done is not enough for things to change. We must also practice what we preach. With this, I make it a priority of mine to personally work to prevent impaired driving within myself and others I share a vehicle with. I will continue to practice safe driving while being alone and driving with others. By driving safely and making it a point, those in my car will see such behavior and soon inherit the habit into their own lives. Not only this, but when I am a passenger, I will continue to remain watchful of my driver and make sure they themselves do not fall into the habit of driving recklessly or impaired. I take the phrase “monkey see, monkey do” literally, as it is often evident that humans tend to care about fitting in and yielding to peer pressure. If we can normalize spaces where the majority are safe and paired drivers, then others will follow suit, as they do not want to stick out and instead copy those around them. Yes, there will be those who want to stick out, but by continuously showing the fatal consequences of impaired driving, this will force those outliers to follow the regression line.
