Distracted Driving

At 13 I was too young to drive to my Swim Team practice alone, so I carpooled along with the other kids from my town. Not all people drive the same, no matter how much drivers try to be universal. There are many opinions about the different styles of driving. For example: should you pull forward before your left turn? Is turning right on red ok where you live? Should you follow two or three seconds behind the car in front of you? All of these questions depend on whom you ask. What does not depend on whom you ask is whether or not going off the highway at 60 miles an hour will get you hurt.

During those carpools to practice, I always wondered how safe we would be. Sometimes the drivers had hands off the wheel, on the phone, and eyes off the road, on the phone. Hurtling 55 down the highway, in the afternoon during rush hour. Even if it was just for a few seconds, the danger was real. To be honest, the parents were way worse with using their phones than the teens when I drove with them. At least with the teenagers, I felt I could speak up about the phone without seeming rude, but I did not want to correct the parents because I assumed they knew more than me.

I am glad to say that I have built up my confidence to correct anyone when we drive and they pull out their phone. Just a simple “Do you want me to read that for you? You’re driving right now.” seems to do wonders. But I worry about what people I care about do when they drive alone. More specifically, I worry for my sister’s friends and my younger cousin.

Because I am old enough to drive wherever I want, I find myself giving students rides on a pretty regular basis. As I am writing this I am planning on picking up a freshman for a 4-H banquet this weekend. During the drive, my responsibility is not only to get them to the end location safely, but also to set a president for when they drive. By using safe driving: using my turn signal, not texting, following the proper distance, and knowing where I am going. I am able to set a good example. But a single good example does not make up for the bad examples that young teens see every day. For this reason, we should do more to reach a larger audience to reduce the dangers of distracted driving.

One of the best ways that we could stop teenage distracted driving is by not targeting them directly, but by targeting those who care for them. Teenagers, as much as we hate to admit it, like it when younger kids look up to us. If we are able to engrave distracted driving warnings into kids, younger students, and other impressionable children then they would be able to influence the older kids around them. This would also serve to set a president at a young age that would be built on in drivers education.

Because teens tend to copy and learn from adults, a key part of reducing distracted driving in teens must be their parents. Most parents want what’s best for their kids, but sometimes they forget about teaching by example. Engaging parents in the development of their teenagers’ driving habits is even more important with them teaching their kids’ drivers education nowadays. Distracted driving education begging focused on parents setting an example will directly lead to students understanding what is and isn’t responsible.

Another way that we can teach teens about the risks of distracted driving is by teaching them about their own reaction time. This fall we did a reaction test in my high school physics class. In one module we tried to catch a ruler when our friend dropped it, as a baseline. In the next one, we had to try to catch the ruler but we were texting at the same time. This module really opened my eyes to how much my reaction time has changed. It almost doubled. From here we were able to see the dangers of distracted driving and see that we were not immune to these challenges. If this activity could be done in driver’s education, it would show students exactly how dangerous distractions are and encourage them to put their phones in driving mode.

Encouraging a designated area to put their phones when driving could also help to reduce the instinct to just pull it out for a quick check. A quick check for notifications is a normal thing to do as a teenager because most of us have our phones on mute during the school day. However, this habit of caring over on the drive home can be an issue. A place for teens to put their phones within the car would shift their mindset into driving mode, and stop that instinctual grab.

I firmly believe that we have all of the resources we need to reduce distracted driving, it is just a matter of using them properly and awareness. For example, I don’t know anyone that has an auto-reply for texts when they are driving, even though I am aware the function exists. Encouraging the use of this function, of turning off your notifications, and of encouraging an area to put their phone when driving. If we combine all of these methods we will be able to reduce distracted driving and save lives.

Overall, I know that I started off on the right track by having parents that preached the importance of putting your phone down. I do the best I can to lead others down this same path but I know that it takes more than just a few positive examples to override the plethora of bad ones. I hope that with the combination of positive peer pressure and increased awareness of the methods above, teens will be safer.