Your Life is Worth More Than a Phone Notification

I’ll always sit back and think of a simplistic view of driving. At the end of the day, people are driving two ton, powerful machines at high speeds. When considering the possible danger of this reality, proper driver education becomes even more crucial. It’s very easy to be a bad driver, and that means it’s very easy to cause death with these vehicles. It is not only necessary, but crucial that drivers ed is highly detailed. New drivers specifically are ignorant of the consequences of the risks they take until its too late. People need to understand this reality and consider the power and responsibility they have while operating a machine that has so much fatal potential.

I have considered lots of solutions that could be implemented to prevent driver deaths. Personally, I believe that with age, driving ability diminishes. Lots of people like to argue that learning to drive is like learning how to ride a bike, but the difference is that bikes will not kill pedestrians if they run into them. I believe that as someone gets older, or possibly at a certain age, drivers tests need to be renewed or at the very least revisited. This policy would not only help older drivers stay safe on the road, but also prevent those older drivers from being able to interfere with other drivers safety.

Another safety measure I believe would be a great addition would be face detection cameras in cars. Companies like tesla set a somewhat good example with this. Tesla autopilot requires drivers to hold the steering wheel once every eight minutes to show that they are still present. As well, Tesla even implements punishments for not following this rule, and prohibits autopilot use for the rest of the ride. This is a great first step in automobile safety, but I believe car manufacturers can take it further. Attention to the road is crucial for drivers to maintain. Just like the Tesla eight minute rule, there could be some sort of detection in cars to determine if the driver is focused on the road or frequently distracted at their phone. Even a simple reminder telling the driver to pay attention might influence them to put their phone away and notice the risk they’re taking.

I have also noticed an increase in oversized trucks in the United States especially. Countries like the U.K. have tighter restrictions on vehicle size. Although places like the U.K. have smaller roads and tighter neighborhoods where there’s less of a need for big trucks, surveys in the U.S. show that we don’t need so many big trucks here either. Sources like “thedrive.com” and “insidehook.com” find that around a third of truck owners don’t use their truck for its intended purpose except for once or twice a year. This means that those people drive these huge vehicles with large blind spots for no reason. These drivers put others and themselves at risk and have no necessity to drive the trucks they drive. I believe there should be tighter restrictions on big trucks in the United States to prevent unnecessary usage of trucks.

The day I had my first crash wasn’t out of the ordinary. It hadn’t been a long day. I spent the afternoon with one of my friends and decided to stay at his house for a bit after dropping him off. When I left, it was dark and rainy, but the weather was nothing I hadn’t driven in before. It felt like an ordinary night. My drive went smoothly up until my first exit off of the highway. The car in front of me stopped after moving forward at a stop sign. In a split second, I heard a loud crash and I jolted forward in my seat. I was in disbelief. I had been driving for a year at this point, and I hadn’t had any major crashes, just little scratches and running into a curb. I had never hit anyones car. Still in shock, I got out of my car, apologized to the man I hit, and followed him to a place we could talk. The following week, I avoided touching a steering wheel. My avoidance wasn’t out of fear that I’d crash the car again, but out of embarrassment of myself. I never crashed. I was on a clean streak. I was at fault. I reflected, and realized that I never understood the importance of paying attention to the road 24/7. I never understood the fact that crashes like mine happen in split seconds, and there isn’t time to react if my attention is drawn to my phone. Ever since the crash, I weigh my options whenever tempted to check my phone. I ask myself if changing the song is really necessary, or if I actually need to text my friends back. I wonder what would have happened that night if I just didn’t check my phone. That simple action caused so much damage to myself and the other driver involved, and there was certainly no emergency on my phone that needed to be addressed in that moment. I started being more disciplined in regards to my phone after the crash. I’ve tried to limit phone usage to stop lights, and take time to ask myself if what I’m doing on my phone is worth crashing again.

Limiting phone usage is a great start to helping myself and others become safer drivers. So much of the world works on the internet. Teens like me feel that there is a need to be connected every second of the day. There is such a fear of missing out that some extend the connection even when on the road. They may not realize, but this means they are risking their life for another second on TikTok or Instagram. What I have started doing is telling my friends that I am driving and cannot text. Even though I am not directly telling my friends that they should not text and drive, my hope is that I set an example for them. Every time they hear me say that, they’re reminded not to text and drive just like me. I’ve also tried to set an example by not checking my phone while theyre in the car with me.