“Not Delivered”

Fathers
are promising their wives they’ll make it home for dinner tonight
as they type “Be there soon” and never find out what was for
dinner. Mothers are texting their friends saying “on my way” with
her daughter for the birthday party all while going 70 mph on a 60
mph highway because she’s a little late. She doesn’t know that
they would both miss the party altogether. Sons and daughters, fresh
out of the DMV, are wanting to “flex” their new privilege as they
record a video of the road from a steering wheel view that never gets
posted. These people become statistics, articles, and videos shown to
students in Drivers Ed as a warning that any message or post could
become your last. These stories cause new drivers to realize this and
they ultimately start out driving a little bit more cautious.
However, that shaken up feeling doesn’t last and that’s when we
become careless and get into accidents. 

We
need to make sure that Drivers Ed doesn’t stop once we get our
license. If we find a way to get stories of these individuals out
there more and maybe even require certain stories to be heard on the
radio or on TV during commercial breaks, it would spread more
awareness and create memorable stories that will caution drivers of
these risks. Hopefully, when behind the wheel, people would then
think back to those stories that were broadcasted and choose to
hopefully stay phone free and focused. Even our own phones can be
optimized to calculate our speed and automatically turn on “Do Not
Disturb” to assist with fighting urges to use our phones because it
rids of the notifications which basically call our names to use our
phones. 

I
have thankfully been able to live my 16 years without fear of myself
driving or those around me. I have yet to be in any serious accidents
while driving myself or while being a passenger. Everyone I’ve
driven with doesn’t use their phone behind the wheel and if they
absolutely need to they will have the passenger do it for them, which
is a great tip for drivers which decreases the risk of getting in an
accident and hurting multiple people. 

Today,
sadly, we don’t have the technology to have our phones
automatically mute our notifications. We can still make sure to mute
our notifications before driving and work to create a habit out of
it, much like fastening our seatbelts when getting in the car. We
have the ability to surf the web, a major convenience. We can be
proactive and educate ourselves on the dangers and stories of those
who have lost innocent and valuable lives due to distracted driving. 
We can share these stories with our friends and families to spread
awareness and continue the education because you don’t want the
last text you receive to be a eulogy.