Distracted Driving: What is the Cost?

Three years ago, before I got my driver’s permit, I had to take a Driver’s Educationclass. Every day, they showed us videos interviewing those who had lost loved ones or caused the death of other people in car accidents. These videos were extremely harrowing and put into perspective just how dangerous driving can be. In most, if not, all of these interviews, the accident was caused by a distracted driver. We saw how these deaths affected the families and friends of those who were killed: their spouses, their parents, even their children. All of these people had to lose one of the most important people in their lives because someone was being reckless. What was the most upsetting part of these interviews, though, was what happened to the people who had taken a life in these incidents. They were empty, in a way. They had killed a person and, even though it was an accident, had gone to prison for murder. That one little decision they made had destroyed their lives. I have seen what their lives are like and I don’t want to become like them.

I have been all too familiar with car accidents throughout my life. When I was ten years old, my father got into an accident that, very easily, could have killed him. It was January 2016, and it was early in the morning before the sun had risen. He was driving on an extremely slippery winter road when he lost control of his car. His Jeep Wrangler, a vehicle notorious for rolling over in accidents, did just that. He rolled several times off the side of the road and into the snow. He was eventually caught by a sapling, which made his landing a little softer than it would have been. He was concussed but, aside from that, he was okay. The car was destroyed, but my dad was alive. The back seat was flung out of the vehicle. Had my brother and I been in the car, we would have been killed.

There have been several student deaths during my time at high school. Of the six that I know of, three of them happened because of car accidents. The first one happened about four years ago. His name was Nick, and he was a junior. The second was almost a year later. Her name was Sammy, and she had just graduated not even a month before her death. The third, being only a few weeks ago, was a girl named Brianna. She had graduated a few years ago, but that didn’t make her death any less painful for the community. She was a part of the hockey team and was close with some of my best friends. They were all in the class of 2021 and were beloved by their peers. All three of these accidents were caused by distracted driving. These kids were killed because of a split-second decision that was thought to be insignificant. Their deaths were preventable.

This April, I was in an accident caused by someone on their phone. I was a passenger, sitting behind the driver, a family friend who happened to be my dentist and her daughter. We were on our way home from a school band event in Mankato that I had to leave early so I could get to work on time. The driver had missed a turn and was pulling over so she could re-orient. The person driving behind us, at 55 mph, was a seventeen-year-old boy who had been texting on his phone and rear-ended us. All I knew at the time was that, one moment, we were pulling over and the next, after a very loud noise, we were facing the other direction. Luckily, the only injury that I had sustained was a bruise from my leg slamming into a center console and some back pain, which I had to start physical therapy for. The driver’s daughter has had a history of bad concussions and had to give up her passion for skiing from the most recent one, which she had still been recovering from. She hit her head on the window and was worried that this would be detrimental to her future dream of being a pilot. We were very lucky that nobody was severely injured in this accident, but it was an incident that has since made me refuse to have my phone in sight when I am driving. I have seen the least of what distracted driving can do and I will not be the cause for someone else’s suffering.

Because of all of these accidents, I have been a lot more aware of when a driver is distracted by their phone, even for a moment. When I see this, I point it out to them and make sure they focus on their driving. I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of a text message that seemed more important than anything else at the moment. I have learned that it’s much better to inconvenience yourself for a few minutes than be the cause of another person’s death. I sincerely hope other people come to understand why it’s important to keep your focus on the task at hand and realize that nothing on your phone is as important as a human life.

Making people aware of what might happen if they are reckless while driving can definitely help them be more cautious drivers and potentially prevent accidents, but not always. There are, unfortunately, a lot of people who won’t take that kind of thing seriously unless something happens to them, personally, or to those who are close to them. Still, it is a good idea to enforce the idea that using your phone while driving, or risky driving in general, is dangerous and how easy it is to get hurt. Driver’s education classes can do just that.