Living Behind the Wheel: A Nation of Distracted Drivers

One of the most common things people will reply when asked “How are things?” is one word: BUSY! Whether student or worker, parent or child, our lives are overscheduled, hectic and full of compromises we make as shortcuts to getting things done.

One of the consequences of this lifestyle is that activities bleed across venues—we do personal business tasks at work, we work at home when we should be relaxing, and increasingly, we use our cars as offices, dining rooms and meeting spaces. Rushing from work to class to school pickup with many errands in between, we spend a lot of time driving, but how much of that time is devoted STRICTLY to what’s happening on the road. Unfortunately, I think we’d all admit that its less than it should be. One of the effects of trying to fit everything in is that we do things with less focus and more haphazardly. That may be a manageable problem if you burn some toast or forget to pick up milk at the store, but being distracted or in any way less than focused when driving can be fatal, for you, your family or others.

It’s easy to think of distracted driving as only teens blasting music or checking their phones when they shouldn’t. A common theme of distracted driving ads or public service announcements is a bunch of young people out cruising and not paying attention to the road, but as a teen driver myself, I see my parents, other family and other adults falling victim to the same bad behaviors. Most times its not malicious, but rather someone like my mom taking a meeting while driving between other meetings, or my dad checking the navigation app because his Bluetooth isn’t working, but even though the intent isn’t to do something bad, its just as dangerous as someone who’s been drinking or speeding. People fall into a trap of trying to be productive in the car, or eating fast food between stops or a hundred other tasks which can lead to a terrible accident and ruin their lives and those of others. What’s the cause of this epidemic of distracted driving and how can we make it better?

In the early 1980s, a rash of drunken driving deaths, many involving young people, led to several interventions by governments and the creation of nonprofits dedicated to eradicating the practice. Drinking ages across the country were raised, ads flooded tv about the dangers of drunk driving and groups such as SADD and MADD arose to educate people about the consequences. Even today, those groups come to schools and do considerable education about drinking and driving. I will always remember in the month before my prom and graduation from high school, MADD parked a destroyed car at the entrance to school as a visual reminder of what can happen when you drink and drive. 40 years later, the idea that drinking and driving is dangerous and bad is something every young adult my age has heard since they were small. It’s a part of our educational curriculum and a conversation every parent has with their children when they get their license.

Why don’t we have the same discussions about distracted driving? It can be just as deadly and is likely more commonplace, as although not everyone drinks, everyone has probably looked at a phone, or eaten McDonald’s or since COVID, had a work meeting while driving. I think its because while people view getting behind the wheel drunk as a choice, some people think the only way to manage their overburdened lives is to get things done while driving. We’ve created a work culture where multitasking is encouraged and time away from work discouraged. Our ties to our phones have made us available to work family and friends 24/7 and boundaries or personal time have been erased. We also drive more and need to be in our cars much more than ever, given where we live across the country and the need to shuttle between many school, work and extracurricular activities in a way previous generations didn’t.

There are apps and other technological tools that can shut off your phone, or secure it while you drive, but as I’ve discussed, that’s only a part of distracted driving. I think to raise awareness we should adopt some of the tools that the anti-drunk driving movement used so well. Whether its wrecked cars on the lawn or groups that exert positive peer pressure against distracted driving, teens in particular may respond to that type of concerted campaign.

Where I think the larger problem exists is amongst adults, particularly those in the workforce. We have blurred the lines between work and life, and scheduled our lives so tightly, that there’s no space to stop and think. The driver’s seat has become desk and dining table, and what we need is a campaign to make everyone aware that that’s not ok. Employers should provide training and support for not only distracted driving awareness, but also work life balance, and try to create cultures where time apart from work is encouraged. The drive for college—in my experience—forces kids to take on many activities and extracurriculars, which they or their parents drive to nonstop. Sports have dominated free time so all weekend people shuttle between games and practices and hardly leave their cars to eat or interact with others. We need to promote the idea of taking a breath, collectively. Take a breath from work, take a breath to enjoy a meal, and take a breath from being behind the wheel constantly, or the next breath you take could be your last.