Name: Daniel Robb
From: Upland, Indiana
Votes: 0
In this age of technology, we like to think that our expensive,
advanced vehicles make us more secure—which is true compared to
those of previous decades—but they can only protect us when our
system of driving regulations is held to. We have these regulations
for good reason, because one person’s lapse of concentration can
cause lifelong trauma and grief for others on the motorway, and it
can happen in an instant.
I’ve never been
in a car accident, but that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned about
the possibility. When I’m riding as a passenger, and the driver
their eyes off the road, it makes me feel unsafe. Sometimes they look
away to see something off to the side, sometimes they’re looking at
someone else in the car during a conversation, but I’ve found that
most often, they’re looking at their mobile phone. Even when it’s
for good cause—reporting an accident, checking the route ahead on
their GPS, searching for the best gas price—when a driver diverts
their attention from the road to anything else, they endanger
themselves, their passengers, and everyone else on the road with
them. No matter how worthwhile the reason, they’re saying that it
is more important to them than the lives and safety of the people
they’re sharing the road with, and that is never an acceptable
attitude when operating a machine capable of such destruction when
misused.
The antidotes to
America’s high roadway fatality count are twofold. First, to teach
new drivers the importance of maintaining focus on the road and to
reduce the distractions they face when driving. Drivers-in-training
need to be aware of the devastating facts and results of vehicular
accidents in order to fully realize their responsibility to drive
carefully. But simply instructing new drivers will not be enough to
prevent all such accidents—even with the best of interests, people
will always give in to the temptation sooner or later. To supplement
the desire to drive safely, the opportunities to drive unsafely must
be limited externally. If apps and programs on a mobile phone are
automatically set on lockdown—turning off pop-up notifications and
reducing access to non-GPS apps, for example—when the device senses
its owner is driving, there will be far less distraction for the
driver. By making this restricted access the default while the
vehicle is in motion, drivers will not even have the temptation to
check their messages for “just one second.” One second is all it
takes for someone to lose their life.
The problem is
serious, but the solution is relatively simple, and comes merely at
the cost of convenience for drivers—myself included. Teaching new
drivers the importance of safe driving, and likewise the potential
impact of unsafe driving, before they are given their licenses, and
reducing the digital distractions drivers face by standardizing a
driving mode in devices to limit unnecessary functions will lead to a
safer future for our country’s roadways.
