What You Can Do About Deaths on the Road

More US citizens die every year than the total amount of soldiers that have ever died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (dmvedu.org). I knew driving was dangerous, but I hadn’t seen that statistic before. It’s not a bad comparison, either- as an EMT, some of the injuries I’ve seen from car accidents are indistinguishable from the images of war injuries shown to me when I was in training.

When I first read that general statement about how “people” die, I thought about the people I care about. The first people that come to mind are my family. My little brother drives for Uber eats in his spare time. I’m an EMT. I drive for Uber eats in my spare time because I can’t afford tuition on the two part time jobs I have. My two youngest siblings are learning how to drive (they’re very close in age). My boyfriend wears all his gear all the time; he rides a motorcycle. There is high risk with driving, but added risk with young drivers, new drivers, emergency  medical personnel, and motorcycle rides. So if there was something I could do, and something other people could do to reduce that risk, that’s something I would want to know more about.

But what can we do? Well, to answer that question, first we have to look at what some of the leading identified causes are. ScienceDirect.com states that some of the leading causes of fatal car accidents include drunk driving, distracted driving, sleep deprivation, miscommunication (largely prevalent with EMS workers as drivers often act erratic when they see an ambulance with flashing lights), lack of lighting, and poor road conditions.

In doing research for this essay, I found some noteworthy pieces of information that I’ve actually never seen before and I felt should be more publicized, so I wanted to make it a point to mention. Injuryfacts.nsc.org states that “Non-Hispanic Blacks experience a passenger vehicle fatality rate 73% higher than non-Hispanic whites. Non-Hispanic Blacks experience a pedestrian (walking) death rate 118% higher than non-Hispanic whites. Non-Hispanic Black pedestrians experience a fatality rate 236% higher than non-Hispanic whites. Hispanic or Latino pedestrians experience a fatality rate 84% higher than non-Hispanic whites.” There is clearly more research that needs to be done on this end investigating the reasons behind these stark disparities- these aren’t just small numbers. Age group also makes a difference. Getting hit by a car is never good, but little kids are more likely to run into the street without looking, and the impact site on a child’s body- their head- is much more dangerous than the impact site of a taller individual at the same speed (Emergency Care for the Sick and Injured, 12th edition, AAOS).

So there’s a list of problems, but what do we do? It’s one of those things I’ve always known is a problem, but I’m just trying to pay my bills and make it to the end of my day. I’m sure there’s expensive cameras and knick knacks I could get for my car to help me be a safer driver, but I don’t have money or time.

There are several things all of us can do at no or little additional cost. One of the top number one options is to just not drink and drive. Making it a habit to always decide whose turn it is to be the designated driver before going, making it a habit to not drink at all if you’re the designated driver, and making it a habit to put money aside for an uber, lyft, waymo, or other option before you start spending money on drinks are three things that have been clinically proven to save lives.

The second thing someone can do is to make it a habit to not drive distracted. I know a lot of people who say, “oh, I never text and drive!” And that is awesome! However- how often are you looking at your maps? How often are you looking for your food, or changing your music, or doing your makeup? By making it a habit to stop and get situated, or to make sure everything is taken care of before you leave, you are saving lives.

I’m not necessarily stating these options in order, but the next thing on the list is to always, always, always wear a seatbelt. My younger siblings got into a car accident a few years ago; my little brother was driving, they were almost home, and a wrong way driver hit them head on. The other car caught on fire. My brother got my siblings out of the car and to the sidewalk, then ran to help the other driver. The firefighters who got to the scene later told them that their seatbelts saved their lives. If they hadn’t all been wearing their seatbelts correctly, I would have lost my siblings that day.

Sleep deprivation is a much harder topic to deal with, especially when it comes to truckers, EMS, healthcare, and other individuals who are working 12, 48, and even 72 hour + shifts. Is it really sustainable to take increasing amounts of caffeine to stay awake? Mythbusters did an episode a while ago to show that driving with sleep deprivation is directly comparable to driving drunk. But these people aren’t being irresponsible- they’re just trying to do their job.

One of the first things is to recognize when you have reached your limit. Some people experience what’s called myoclonic jerks (Mayo Clinic)- if at this point, you are dangerously close to falling asleep at the wheel and it is time to switch drivers or pull over. Getting out of the car and doing jumping jacks, drinking water, putting on shades if excessive sunlight is making it harder to keep open already droopy eyes, singing along to music, driving with the window down, avoiding high carb meals, working less overtime, and ensuring good sleep occurs before shift start can all help. This is another area more work needs to be done in, though, because there are several solutions that workers still experience today that none of these solutions are available in.

Becoming educated about your body, your needs, and your habits can make a world of difference. Driver safety courses can be expensive, but some of them can save you money on car insurance, so these are also worth looking into. Driver education is actually important because it can make a difference in the amount of deaths that occur- and that might just impact somebody you personally know. So many drivers who killed another person have said that they didn’t think that they were going to hurt someone before they made the choices that led to a fatality. If you keep learning about what you can do and when you need to do it, you can save lives.