Name: Abigail Fiske
From: Bryceville, FL
Votes: 0
When growing up there are constant mild stones that come with each new year. One of the big ones that many kids think about is driving. As you start to drive you take tests and courses and even practice driving before you’re completely on your own. The one thing many don’t take seriously that needs to be is the distractions that come into play when driving a vehicle. A distraction can be anything that takes away even 1% of your focus from the road. I am currently 17 and while when I had my permit I was way less distracted. I tend to feel like I slacked off on the proper driving mechanism in order for a safe and undistracted drive. Now talking about distractions when in a vehicle the list can go on however some that are most common is texting while driving, friends in the vehicle, and changing the music station. Just these three things that may not seem so bad can be life changing. But a step further than these distractions is impaired driving. Impaired driving is when someone is operating a vehicle while your ability to drive safely is compromised from drinking alcohol, illegal drugs, or even legal medications like prescriptions or over-the-counter drugs, or even something as simple as extreme fatigue. This is most of the time misunderstood because driver education and traffic school tend to focus primarily on alcohol and blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Which is leading people and especially young drivers to believe impairment only applies when they are “drunk” or “high” and forgetting about other risks like those posed by everyday medications, sleep deprivation, or other substances.
For me, changing the music station and having friends/family in the car can be the most distracting. I love to talk so when I have family or friends in the car it can be difficult to completely focus on what’s going on around me while also continuing on a conversation with someone. Another big one is if the song isn’t what I wanna hear I have to change it until my favorite song comes on or just one that I don’t mind listening to. The longer you have your license you think that these little things aren’t distractions but as time goes on they really become even bigger distractions. One big thing that everyone including myself needs to learn is how to break these bad distracting habits from our driving. A way for me to break the bad habit of changing my music station while driving is to put it on a certain station then if I want to change it I must be completely stopped before I can do so. To create the most safe and productive route I believe planning ahead of time and prioritizing the things around me rather than my music will create less distractions in the vehicle. Another way I plan on limiting the distractions in my car while driving is giving myself the courage to tell whoever is in my car whether friends or family may be quiet for a minute or quiet their voice in order for me to have a clearer focus on the road and the people around me. There are many steps and/or actions I can take to clearly explain to my passenger the concerns I am having. For instance, I can clearly exemplify and communicate my concerns I may have with something they are doing while I am driving. When doing so I can properly inform them of the correct procedures to take when driving. There are many distractions in everyday life, especially when driving , in order to create a safe and proper drive for not only yourself but also the other drivers around you; you must limit or completely get rid of the distractions in your vehicle. It was my sophomore year of high school when my best friend called me to tell me her boyfriend got in a car crash. Within a few hours it was determined that he as well as the other 4 people in the car were all in some way not sober. This was a scary thought that even high schoolers knowing the different risks they were taught are still impaired driving. Even though I have known for a very long time not to ever drive when impaired this was an eye opening event that happened in real life. Not just from a movie or in a story or a made up fact it happened for real.
