It Only Takes One Second

I’ve had my drivers license for just over a year now, and it’s really opened my eyes to how important safety is, especially for teen drivers. I’ve seen way more accidents that have involved teens than I ever thought I would, and I believe a big part of that and distracted driving is phones and how common it is for our generation to drink under age.

Driving safety isn’t just something that affects teens, it affects everybody on the road. When teens are driving, it puts not only them at risk, but other drivers, passengers, and even pedestrians. In my drivers ed class, we spent a couple of days talking about the dangers of distracted driving. I remembered my drivers ed class, showing scenario videos and reading us articles about people who have lost their lives because of distracted driving, specifically from teens. I do think that my class did a good job of covering the dangers when it comes to drinking and driving, but I think they struggled with showing the dangers of other types of distracted driving like texting, talking to passengers, scrolling on your phone, or even just changing the music.

I think the biggest distraction that teens face nowadays are their phones. Teens tend to believe that once they get their driver’s license, they become “invisible”, especially behind the wheel. I’ve noticed most, if not all, of teens that have driven me before on their phone at least once while they’re driving. Even if it’s something as small as skipping a song, it only takes one second to crash. Along with distractions, teens are most influenced by the people they surround themselves with. Peer pressure and teens driving is a disaster waiting to happen. Teens pressured into doing crazy things while driving like speeding, off-roading, going into restricted areas, etc. not only puts anyone in the car at risk of danger, but also at risk of trouble with the law. While I can’t think of any ways to prevent teens from being peer pressured, I think there should be a feature on phones to somehow sense when someone is driving so they can make apps unavailable.

A personal experience with teen driving habits is my school’s parking lot. I’m a junior in high school and have been in the student parking lot since I was a freshman, whether it was my brother driving me before I could drive or me driving myself. There have been very few times that I was in the parent/teacher parking lot, but there was a common difference that I noticed. In the student parking lot every day when I leave or get into school, I’ve noticed students on their phones while driving. Even if they’re not actively looking at their phone, a majority of the time I’ve looked into somebody’s car, they are at least holding a phone in their hand. I have also found myself on my phone in the parking lot or at least holding it along with the other students. Although I’ve never been in the parent/teacher parking lot as many times as I’ve been in the student parking lot, but most of the times I’ve been there I don’t think I’ve seen a parent on their phone while driving or at least not nearly as many times as the students. There is a very clear and noticeable effect that this has on students at my school. Last year at the end of the year, I was in a fender bender in my school parking lot because somebody was paying attention to their phone rather than driving. Within two or three weeks of my fender bender, there were around five more accidents in the student parking lot due to distracted driving. Aside from the school parking lot, I also experienced another distracted driving accident while my brother was driving me to school once. On the highway, somebody was on their phone which caused them to almost miss their exit and so they swerved in front of his car causing an accident. It’s small distractions that can cause things like that to happen and put so many lives at risk.

I think something schools specifically can do to promote the safety of teen driving is collaborating with the program Every 15 Minutes. Every 15 Minutes is a program that puts on fake scenarios for specifically high schools to highlight the dangers of drunk and distracted driving. Usually, schools use this program around major times of the school year like graduation, prom, or homecoming. The program uses realistic props, such as fake blood and destroyed cars to make the scene as realistic as possible for students. They even get students from the school that they’re performing at to participate in the scene and bring in the fire department, police, and ambulances. You can find videos with this program from lots of schools on almost any social media platform. These videos really help high school drivers and even passengers realize how dangerous distracted driving truly is and how tragic it would be if it happened to them or somebody they know.

Distracted driving is such an easily preventable thing that I truly believe can only be stopped by a person behind the wheel. If not only teens, but everybody behind the wheel recognized that and did their part while driving, I honestly think the death rate from car accidents would go down tremendously. But until then, the people that do know how important it is to stay focused on driving while you’re driving do their role, we can bring the number down. The people who know the real risk, need to work together. It only takes one second.