Dangers of the Road

You’re in your car listening to music and not giving a care in the world. You are driving down a two lane divided highway. You are having fun singing along and all of a sudden, your phone chimes and you look down, your mom texted you. You pickup your phone and look to see what she texts. Then you look up and there are headlights facing you and you crash. Later that night on the news there was a report of a head on highway crash, there were no survivors.

Now you might be wondering, why would I write something so depressing when trying to promote driving safely? Am I trying to scare people from driving? The answer is, no. The reason I told this story is what would have happened to me had I not been paying attention to the road.

I was driving down the two lane divided highway thinking nothing could happen. I was listening to music and having a fun time. It was dark outside, it was winter, and I was tired and heading home from a long day of school. I was going to pass the car in front of me because they kept swerving, slowing down and speeding up again. When I went into the other lane to pass them, the car in front of me completely stopped and turned around in front of me. I then noticed they were coming towards me and were driving in the complete opposite direction of the traffic coming towards them. I screamed and swerved into the lane next to me. Had I not been paying attention, I could have been like the person in that story. I could have died.

In drivers training, we are shown videos of people being irresponsible and bad traumas come from it. We see families dealing with loved ones who passed. We have seen people paralyzed from crashes and more. So, why do we do it? Why do we drive irresponsibly? Well, a lot of times it is “fun in the moment,” but is it fun in the long run? Chances are you will look back and say, “wow that was dumb.”

So how can we prevent this? First, we should think safety first. We should not only think of our own safety, but others around us. You can do this by checking your mirrors, putting on your seat belt (and not because you don’t want to get pulled over by the cops), or if you need to play music like me, adjust your radio before you start driving. Another way to reduce bad habits is to pay attention to the road, be attentive. Some of the time, like in my story, it might not be your fault an accident happened, but you could have prevented it. Some other safety precautions to follow include: keeping your speed down, following at a safe distance (the 3-4 second rule), and lastly cutting out distractions. Yes, I said it. Cut out distractions. I don’t mean your kids can’t ride in the car with you, I mean to keep obstructions to your vision (such as dice on the rear view mirror) away, keeping the radio volume down in the car, and lastly phones.

In today’s day in age we are very reliant on phones for everything. We use them for GPS, facts, games, music, any distraction you can think of in a vehicle. How easy is it to pick up your phone at a red light and just think “Oh just for a second ” or “I just want to change the song”? Just in 2021 there was a report of an increase of 3,522 deaths due to texting and driving and a total of 362,415 injuries. So, you might be thinking, how do we reduce the use of phones if we aren’t in the car to make sure the said person isn’t using it? Well, if you’re a parent, set up boundaries early behind the wheel with phones. If your child is prone to checking their phone constantly or “need” to see their phone, maybe get a dash phone holder, that way it is still visible, and they can still concentrate. Another way to reduce phone use is to enable bluetooth in vehicles so all of the controls are on the steering wheel.

Sadly, there is no way around not using a phone. There are always people who are going to think that “nobody will know if they’re not here.” However, there are still ways to reduce the constant use of looking down at phones and the use of them in the vehicle. What matters is that our loved ones are driving safely and being safe when others aren’t driving safe. In the long run, it is hopefully one less life to worry about.