The Unfulfilled Text

“i love you 🙂 see you soon!” Left hand on the steering wheel, your right thumb touches the glowing, blue arrow. Sent 7:59 pm. You look up and in a split second, it’s over. This is the reality of distracted driving. Your joyful “see you soon!” never comes to fruition. It’s easy to sway for “just one text,” but that’s all it takes.

One story that shook me was from thefamilyorbit.com about a teen who was responding to a text she received while driving. The whole response was one letter, “k.” That text was never sent. The teen crashed and died from her injuries a few days later. When I began research for this essay, I was convicted of how many unsafe driving habits I allow. My heart broke as I read stories of freshly graduated seniors dead days after graduation due to distracted accidents. Once educated on the reality of irresponsible driving, it is deeply selfish to maintain those habits. Safe driving is important because it holds the fate of actual lives.

There are so many dangerous practices drivers commit. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted driving alone accounted for 986,000 accidents and caused 2,895 fatalities in 2019. The CDC differentiates distracted driving into three categories. “Visual: taking your eyes off the road. Manual: taking your hands off the wheel. Cognitive: taking your mind off driving.” Drunk, distracted, and drowsy driving are just a few of the areas we are falling short in. Taking ownership of this epidemic, we need to reevaluate our driver education and awareness, large-scale change, and personal action.

Driver education is fundamental to creating safe drivers. Basic driver education is key to setting us up for success, but we are lacking awareness of the consequences of unsafe driving. Researching the aftermath of drunk, distracted, and drowsy driving could be highly effective in stunning students with the responsibilities of their new skills. Reading stories of teens killed in preventable accidents shocked me. Making students research will expose them to the severity of this issue. As young people, we aren’t always aware of the consequences of our actions. Parents and schools should partner to protect students by empowering and equipping them with knowledge. It should be a requirement to cover the dangers of irresponsible driving in high school. Students participating in peer-reviewed assignments, researching the numbers and tragedies of car accidents, will double the effectiveness of the assignment as students will not only be required to research their own facts but will also be introduced to more information from other students.

We can reduce the number of deaths due to irresponsible driving through large-scale change. First, we can mandate the requirement for schools to provide awareness and education for their students. Second, we can support laws that eliminate passengers with young drivers. Passengers have a direct correlation with distracted driving accidents, especially in young drivers. According to the CDC, “A national study of 15-17-year-old drivers showed that fatal crashes were 21% lower when zero passengers were allowed and 7% lower when one passenger was allowed, compared with policies that allowed two or more passengers.” We can implement this personally and also support laws that don’t allow young passengers with young drivers. Third, car manufacturers should innovate with the goal of increasing focused driving. I don’t see the car industry seeking creative solutions to the distractions that plague our roads. If we shift this paradigm we will see increased change.

On a personal level, I have increased my commitment to safe driving habits. To minimize hands-on risky business, I make a promise to myself not to eat, check my hair or makeup, or fiddle with objects in the vehicle. I have experience as a food-service delivery driver. While delivering orders once, my drink carrier fell over as I was slowing down. In that moment I asked myself, “Is fixing the drinks worth my life?” I found a place to pull over and turned on my hazards. I had to clean up a mess, but that was much better than endangering my life and those around me.

Texting is the main villain in these distracted accidents. One way that I have eliminated text distraction while driving is by utilizing the “Do not disturb – Driving Mode.” Some phones allow you to edit the notifications that you receive while driving. You can choose this mode to begin automatically when you start your vehicle. Get your friends and family on board. When I shared my research with my mom about the dangers of distracted driving and the horrific tragedies they caused, she asked me to help her enable the “Do not disturb – Driving Mode.” setting on her phone. We can all influence our loved ones to cultivate safer driving habits. Make a pact promising not to text while driving with your family, best friends, and significant other. This may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but if we all do our part, our spheres of influence will make a tangible impact.

As a young driver myself, I have encountered the distractions that peers can cause. While driving my friends home from the beach, my passengers in the back seat began to rough house and get noisy, tickling and teasing each other. Quickly, I pulled over and firmly insisted on a new seating arrangement and different behavior. I may not be a “fun” driver, but I keep myself and my passengers safe by enforcing responsible behavior in my passengers. As a passenger, be committed to a focused environment and keep your driver accountable.

Irresponsible driving is a heavy issue. It is heartbreaking and preventable. We can make our roads safer by requiring awareness, supporting focus-friendly laws and innovation, and enacting change on a personal level. Let’s unite to eradicate these preventable tragedies.