Safe Driving

I am here to stop distracted driving. What is distracted driving people might ask, because it is not just texting and driving. Any type of driving that involves you doing anything other than just driving, is and should be considered distracted driving. This could range from texting, to being drunk, or simply changing the song on your phone or the radio. These are all examples of distracted driving, and can all result in an accident or worse, death.

My experience with being distracted and driving could have ended my life, which is why it is so important to not let yourself lose sight of the road. It was a regular day at home, the ride from my dads house to my moms is easily 5-10 minutes depending on traffic. I take the same routes everytime I go, and me being comfortable with driving I was looking at my phone. This day happened to be a day when the road was indeed not clear, and I had ended up hitting a car trying to stop at a stop light. Now nobody was hurt, and thank God no ones car was totaled so we both just went on with our day, but imagine if I was on the highway, and the same thing happened with me going 65 or 80 mph. Somebody can really die, and it only takes you looking at your phone for maybe 10 seconds.

What about Khyree Jackson, a man who was barely in his 20s, just got drafted to play ball in the N.F.L, and him and 3 of his friends from high school were killed by a drunk driver. He had so much life ahead of him, a whole career playing the game he loves, just to have his life cut short, by someone who could’ve just called an uber to go home or a friend. Drunk driving in itself is a whole other conversation to have, but when your mind is not clear, and you’re focused on what is ahead of you on that road, people die.

Us young people especially in the day in age we live in have got to learn how to put our phones down for 30 minutes. I know personally I look on social media so much in one day, and it is hard to put the phone because if you drop it for one hour you can miss so much of what is happening out there in the world. Which is apart of the problem of why ever while we are driving, we tend to at least peak at what is going on, which then causes accidents. This was the plan of phone companies that is working too well on us young pimps. See we know the problem, and what causes these problems, and the results of it. Now we need solutions to these problems.

I can name many solutions to how you can stop some distractions on the road, but most importantly, we just gotta put the phone down. It is real, people can genuinely die if you keep trying to peek at what is going on, on instagram. One of those things that can help with that is for iphone users, and im sure samsung has the feature, but everytime you drive there is a feature that allows you put your phone on do not disturb while driving, this setting blocks all notifications, including phone calls, and texts which tells the user on the other phone to not hit you up, until you make it to your destination, or atleast stop the car. “What about when I wanna switch the song on the radio?” Some one said, well first of all I feel that is essential that everyone who drives has a playlist for the road. This essentially stops 8 out of the 10 times where you have to look at the phone, because one of your favorite songs is next on the playlist. Then in the time when you’re not alone, the driver shouldn’t even have the phone, give it to the person next to you or behind to solve this easy. To my drivers with kids distraction is almost inevitable, especially to the ones who are doing it all alone, all I can say is for the most part try your best to keep your eyes on the road at all cost, because the worst thing that can happen is you getting you and your child hurt.

To conclude this it is absolutely possible to not get while driving especially for a reason like you being distracted. Having a license is a privilege and not a right, and us young people need to act like it, before our lives are cut short. Remember there are so many ways to avoid looking at your phone on the road, and it is not like our trips are always more than an hour long. Nothing is that much of an emergency for you to be checking your phone so much, just put it down until you are at your destination.