Drive Smarter, Not Harder

“Here we go…” I said, buckling my new car’s seatbelt, one I had bought a few days prior, and was about to drive independently for the first time. I lowered my parking brake, pausing at the harsh sound it made, but shrugging it off as a quirk of the car. I slowly cruised through the parking lot, approaching an intersection with a stop sign. I gently pressed my brake…. nothing? I pressed harder, believing I had simply withheld pressure, again, nothing. Panic set in, as I was inching dangerously close to the busy intersection with a dead brake and knowing that if I didn’t do something I would possibly be killed. In a moment of instinct and concentration, I swerved left, off the street, downing a street sign and narrowly avoiding death.

There is no denying the importance that driver’s education has in protecting lives, but I don’t believe it is the main tool for protecting drivers’ lives. According to research conducted by the University of Nebraska, students that take driver’s education are less likely to be involved in an accident or receive a ticket, but only by 1%. There is merit in taking driver’s ed, but I don’t believe that simply improving driver’s ed will lower the number of deaths. Instead, I and many others believe that distracted driving is far more likely to cause crashes, and distracted driving is something that Driver’s Ed cannot ever fully account for. Therefore, I believe that the best way to reduce the number of deaths caused by crashes is to focus on removing distractions on a technical level instead of only focusing on driver’s ed.

This is easier said than done though, because as common as distracted driving is, the demographic of distracted drivers is difficult to pin down, and therefore finding a solution is equally difficult. Distracted driving is unique in its reputation. Driving impaired causes around 10,000 more deaths a year than distracted driving, and yet distracted driving has stereotypes connected to it that impaired driving doesn’t. Specifically, stereotypes relating to teenagers. When the phrase ‘teen driver’ is spoken, the image that probably comes to mind is that of a speeding party animal blasting loud music without an ounce of attention paid to the road. When the phrase ‘adult driver’ is said, no such imagery is present, even though a substantial percentage of impaired and distracted drivers, around 93%, are adults, not teenagers.

Indeed, distracted driving has affected me, even though the accident I was involved in wasn’t a case of distracted driving, because of the stereotypes about distracted driving directed towards teens. The brake failure I experienced was initially labeled by officers as a case of inattentive driving, charge and all. Why? Because I was an 18-year-old driving a new car for the first time. This charge was placed without any further evidence proving I wasn’t paying attention and despite me having unambiguous evidence at the scene that my brakes were acting abnormally. Calling me frustrated would be an understatement, because I knew if I couldn’t clear my name that this would be a permanent stain on my record. A teenager who crashed due to inattentive driving? Untrustworthy.

Luckily, I was able to get the charge waived after supplying concrete proof from my dealership that the brakes had indeed failed, and that I acted with perfect precision. The crash happened the way it did because I was paying attention, not because I wasn’t. I’m not the only teenager who struggles with this either. Many of my teenage friends drive responsibly but are labeled as untrustworthy or even bad drivers based solely on their age and supposed lack of experience. Yet these same drivers have reported accidents, managed crash scenes, and have never been pulled over. We are living proof that teenagers can handle themselves behind the wheel, just like adults.

That’s why phrases like ‘I have to make sure I stay off the road when you’re around’ hurt so much. I know they’re friendly jabs, but they sting, more so after the trauma of my brake failure, and because they know that my first driving experience wasn’t smooth either. For years before I got my license, I was petrified by the idea of driving. This fear plagued me through driver’s education and was only heightened by my instructors. They went out of their way to quell reckless behavior, but never encouraged those who were afraid to be more confident, leading me to almost fail my driving test due to anxiety.

The fact that distracted driving is the expected outcome for all teens affects all of us negatively. We aren’t respected as drivers and are considered all the same behind the wheel.

Distracted driving is a fundamental problem that affects everyone, but the current methods of spreading awareness of distracted driving target the wrong people. Only evaluating one demographic of drivers when drivers of all groups contribute to the problem won’t solve the problem. I believe that better methods of spreading awareness about distracted driving should be interpersonal and technical rather than. Much of the awareness spread about distracted driving today looks at the problem through a national lens, with statistics and behavioral guides teaching drivers what not to do.

There’s a clear problem with that method. Many distracted drivers are aware that their behavior isn’t safe but continue to do so anyway either for the thrill, out of carelessness, or even out of habit. Excuses I’ve heard from friends and family include “it won’t happen to me”, “it was just one time” and “I won’t get in trouble for it if I’m careful.”. These arguments are fallacies, and not one holds up.

Since these views are so prevalent amongst drivers of all ages, simply including changes in Driver’s Ed programs is not enough. Distracted driving needs to be focused on as its own issue with its own solutions.

I propose that instead of relying on data to raise awareness, we encourage personal testimony to spread awareness. Use stories to get people interested, because if there’s one thing people of all ages love, it’s a compelling story. Let drivers previously involved in distracted driving incidents share their testimonies with their towns and cities. Talk about it constantly, make it something drivers are always hearing about and thinking of. I also believe that this method of spreading awareness should be done at a local level instead of a state or national one, since it lets drivers know that the problem isn’t a distant one, it happens everywhere and can affect anyone. One’s lackadaisical opinion about distracted driving may change if they hear about specific people who were affected in their area, because the closer the problem feels, the more likely we are to solve it.

As for how to solve it, I believe that control needs to be taken away from the driver. Don’t give the driver the choice to be distracted, design cars so that distracted driving red flags can be caught, and the driver’s attention recaptured. It might seem like a farfetched idea to rely on mechanical methods for solving distractions instead of human ones, but the evidence is already showing that improving the designs of our cars and the technology in them saves lives. No matter how much awareness we raise, there will still be distractions and crashes caused by them. Stopping distracted driving relies on restricting those distractions.

Many steps have been taken already to inhibit certain key distractions and have been proven to save lives. One example of this type of technology is seatbelt sensors, sensors that detect whether a passenger is buckled, keeping the car from starting until all passengers are buckled. Seatbelts are crucial in keeping passengers in cars safe, with nearly 18,000 people (about the seating capacity of Madison Square Garden) dying in 2017 because they were not wearing one. Another example of safety technology is accelerator apps on phones. These apps have built in GPS signals that can detect when a car is moving and can even track your driving habits. These apps can then disable activity on the cell phone until the vehicle is stopped or can alert the driver if they are driving unsafely, preventing texting, silencing notifications and blocking calls so long as the car is in motion. This type of technology would go on to save at least 400 more lives a year, though the number of lives saved and accidents prevented will likely be over double that, according to Miller & Zois.

Introducing improved devices of this flavor will undoubtedly save hundreds of lives because it takes the possibility to be distracted away from the driver, and with the continued implementation of self-driving cars, that number is likely to decrease even more over time. The simple truth is that a decent percentage of people who own driver’s licenses probably give in to these dangerous temptations at least once, but it only takes one mistake to permanently change or end a life forever.

At the end of the day though, the ability to be safe on the road will always come down to the individual drivers, myself being no exception. On the day of my accident, I was able to make the correct decision to save my life, but just because I was paying attention in that moment doesn’t mean that I have a perfect track record when it comes to distractions. I am often distracted by my music, even if my eyes don’t leave the road, I don’t see any of what’s in front of me, and this problem only worsens when I have passengers in the car, since I struggle to focus on the conversation without making eye contact. Since my accident though, I have already begun taking steps towards improvement. In recent times, I have changed the way that I listen to music in my car, letting the process be more automated instead of manual, so I don’t have to tear my focus away from what’s in front of me. I also do my best to drive solo as often as possible, so my attention is not diverted by conversations either. On the off chance that I do have to drive with a passenger, I plan to enforce more boundaries relating to being a distraction in the car, something that my friends have already expressed their understanding for.

Those same boundaries also extend towards helping others stay safe on the road. My biggest rule involves seatbelts. I play the role of the seatbelt sensor when I drive, the car doesn’t move until everyone is buckled. I also encourage my passengers to handle my phone for me acting as navigators or ‘designated texters’ so long as I’m behind the wheel. My ability to help others behind the wheel doesn’t have to only be with friends though. My crash experience was a rare one, and I know many people who wouldn’t have been able to react the way I did. Nowadays, I use the story of my brake failure to incentivize other drivers to be aware of their car’s condition, and to always have a plan of action in case of a failure of any kind. The idea of that kind of incident had never crossed my friends’ minds until it happened to me, but since then, one of my friends had thought up and put an emergency plan to use after they experienced an engine failure whilst on an interstate. By simply telling people that it can happen and that it is a matter of life and death when it does, I was able to potentially save the lives of those drivers.

I also have one last belief. By applying for scholarships that center driving safety, such as this one and the Kanoski Bresney scholarship, I am making it plain to the world that safe driving is important to me. There is no reason not to stand for safe driving, something I’ve only considered more since my accident.

After all, it only takes a little bit of effort and a little bit of change to save lives.