Preventing Distracted Driving

The Lane Place Bridge, a common pedestrian bridge, in Washington, DC collapsed on Interstate 295 on June 23rd, 2021. A truck traveling down the busy interstate collided with the bridge causing an immediate destruction. Five people are rushed to the hospital with injuries. Commuters familiar with traveling this route sat in traffic while public safety officials work diligently to contain and rectify the situation. Distracted driving habits play a major role in accidents. Accidents are caused by one of my most common distracted driving habits. The absence of utilizing my decision making skills.

One of my distracted habits while driving my vehicle is overthinking. I want to turn a certain direction and did not because I am preoccupied with my thoughts. I overthink about managing my daily tasks in my mind while driving. I ask myself did I turn the stove off when I was finish cooking or properly lock the door before heading to my destination? Being deeply absorbed in my thoughts results in losing focus while driving.

Another distraction from the absence of proper decision making skills is looking out the window to monitor my blind spot. This action requires I take my eyes completely off the road ahead, turn my head fully to the side and monitor the adjacent lane for a vehicle. I do this to confirm I will not cause an accident when I migrate from one lane to another. This distraction is dangerous to the cars commuting along the road and can cause a serious accident if something unexpected happens like a sudden stop.

Holding my phone to monitor my GPS is another distraction from the lack of proper decision making skills. I use my GPS to navigate where I go. The problem with unfamiliarity in an area is sometimes while I am driving I look at the phone to ensure I am making the correct turn. The GPS will say 0.5 miles away but I still monitor to make sure I am making the correct turn 3 streets ahead oppose to two. Having to monitor my GPS while driving removes my focus from the road to the phone in my hand. This can cause a major accident if something unexpected occurs and I am busy looking at my phone.

My final distraction is navigating the bluetooth while trying to drive. My vehicle has a function on the steering wheel used to navigate between songs and various volume levels. I also have a screen display within my dashboard displaying song titles. While using the buttons to navigate between songs, I usually stare at the dashboard for a small period of time trying to commit to the perfect song. Taking my focus away from the road and looking at my dashboard to monitor the song choice is a poor decision making skill.

I think the best preventative measures to combat my distracted driving habits is to prioritize my decision making skills. Making a concrete decision to become more accountable and responsible by handling household responsibilities before getting into the car will prevent vehicular deaths. I can now focus on properly operating my vehicle without putting other drivers’ in danger.

Adjusting my mirrors to monitor the blind spots around my vehicle can prevent my distracted driving habit of monitoring my blind spots. Properly using the side view mirrors without having to navigate my eyes away from the road ahead can prevent accidents. Focusing on the road ahead opposed to the vehicles that are in my blind spot can prevent accidents and injuries from occurring.

The best preventative measure for not holding my phone while navigate my GPS is to invest in a phone mount. The mount can sit in an area of the car that prevents having to look away from the road while driving. My focus will be directly on the road and not counting to locate the correct street to turn on. This solution addresses the need to take my eyes off the road to focus on the phone in my hand.

Deciding against navigating my bluetooth and picking the perfect song while driving can prevent accidents. Riding in silence or allowing the radio to play can prevent vehicular accidents. I need to be disciplined and realize my music choice is not important compared to the lives in the vehicles traveling alongside me.

Although these preventative measures are tailored to my distractive driving habits, I believe every driver can adopt them to prevent accidents or unwarranted deaths while driving in the future. Following these solutions around prioritizing overthinking, properly monitoring our blind spots, resist focusing on music choice and monitoring our phones with GPS we can prevent future vehicular accidents. Adopting and utilizing better decision skills while operating our vehicles is the most conclusive preventative measure while driving our vehicles.