Distracted Drivers and Its Correlation To Car Crashes

As the years go on, the number of car crashes due to distracted drivers. In spite of that, I have had a personal experience with car crashes and the correlation to distracted drivers. This year my family has gone through a traumatic encounter with a car crash. My great uncle has recently just died due to a car crash. He was out and about on his daily routine, and as he was turning into his community to go home, he was hit by a distracted driver going 90mph in a 45, resulting in my uncle dying on impact. As it turns out, this driver should have not been on the road. He was an 18-year-old adult, with multiple speeding tickets already. On top of that, he was on drugs, impairing his driving already. Research shows that driving under the influence affects your reaction time, as it makes it difficult to perceive time and distance. Under these circumstances, there was no doubt in my mind that he wasn’t distracted, due to his inability to focus. In addition to car crashes,I also have another personal story that has personally affected me and my dance team. I have always done competitive dance outside of school ever since I was little at a dance studio. At my studio our dance community is very close and supportive of each other, as we are a team. One day on the way to a dance competition, a dance mom was killed in an accident on the way there. To explain, as she was driving, she noticed her kid had dropped something in the backseat. So she took off her seatbelt and went to reach back to grab what her kid had dropped. This caused her to lose control of the car and drive off the freeway, ejecting her out the window. Her death created an impact on not only her kids but also the dance community. It showed us the dangers of distracted driving. Not only have these stories been embedded in my mind, but the fear and guilt of hitting someone has made me abstain from distracted driving. There are multiple methods to help avoid the urge to check your phone while driving that work for me. I like to put my phone on Driving Focus. This automatically puts my messages and notifications on silent so I can stay focused on driving and not get distracted. If I ever really have to answer my phone, I always use the buttons on my steering wheel or use Siri to read/apply to messages so that I don’t have to look at my phone. And lastly, a method that works well for me is to place my phone lying flat and out of reach from me. This will certainly ensure you will NOT TOUCH YOUR PHONE. From my point of view, I have never been in an accident or ever been close to an accident. However, I do have a close friend of mine that has. One time I was driving to my high school for cheer practice and I happened to see a car on the side of the road badly damaged. It didn’t take me long to recognize that it was one of my friends. After ensuring he was ok, it turned out that he was driving on a busy street on his phone, and ended up rear-ending someone. After learning the whole story, I was very discouraging. I was annoyed about the carelessness and negligence he had when he was driving. Ever since then, I don’t care for his reckless driving and I have never been in another car with him. Sharing these horrific stories that I have personally experienced and other stories that I have learned is the best way to show others the dangers of distracted driving. As bad as it is to say this, putting “fear” in drivers and educating them about the horrors is what is needed. Fear makes us alert to danger and prepares us for certain situations. To further explain, drivers should have a “fearsome” list. Drivers should have fears of accidents as it should keep drivers focused and drive defensively, fear of damage to the vehicle and themselves as it is very painful and expensive, the fear of breaking the law as it keeps drivers cautious of their speed and traffic rules, and fear of causing injuries and suffering to another as it something that can’t be fixed. Spreading awareness of these dangers should make a driver a second check before driving distracted/recklessly. To address these concerns in society, we need to make safe driving community events more often and accessible. Before researching and writing this piece, I never knew about community events and city council meetings that share awareness about driving distracted. As it turns out there are multiple events that share all types of information. For example, the California Highway Patrol has programs that should be more accessible and available to the public. Their foundations consist of; The Designated Driver Program which is designed not only to educate the public about the dangers of drinking and driving but also to encourage and reward those who choose not to drink to safely drive others home. The Sober Graduation Program is an effective anti-DUI program targeting high school seniors and raising their awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving. Red Ribbon Week Program which is an annual event, usually held in October, to increase the public’s awareness of the problems associated with using illicit drugs. The National Drunk And Drugged Driving Week aims to increase national awareness of the hazards of driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. These programs are super educational and should be plastered everywhere. In conclusion, when you are on the road you must stay off your phone, don’t drink, don’t do drugs, follow traffic rules, and be aware when you are on the road. You never know, it could not only save someone else’s life…but your own. Thank you.