Behind Bars

Behind Bars

Nothing can parallel the shock of seeing someone you personally know behind bars. My friend decided to attempt to drive home drunk. In his clumsy effort to operate his car, he drove off an on-ramp to the highway. He wildly flew down the steep hill, collided with a semi, and finally made the foolish decision to speed off from the accident, driving on the 3 rims of his dilapidated vehicle.

After miraculously surviving the crash and the haphazard trip off the highway to a gas station, he was quickly apprehended by the police. He was transported in the back of a police car to jail. I was notified with a vague explanation of what happened, and now found myself driving down to the police station, albeit in the front seat of the car. There, I found myself listening to him retell the terrible events that occurred. I was in disbelief at his stupidity,

Stories like these should never have been created. They are the result of ignorant drivers who were badly instructed and a society that does not emphasize the importance of safe driving. With better driving instruction to students, people would better understand the dangers of things such as drunk driving or distracted driving. Almost 11,000 people died in 2019 from distracted driving according to The Zebra and this number is climbing. Distracted driving is the number one cause of accidents, and this is because society has decided to label distracted driving as “not dangerous”. Everyone seems to do it including my parents.

To combat this “social norm” an emphasis on the dangers of distracted driving needs to be established. People need to start putting their phones down while they drive. They can not be texting, fidgeting with their music, or eating a three-course meal. They need to be completely attentive to the road in front of them. They should adjust their music before they start driving. If they urgently need to text someone, they should pull over to safely send the text. If people start to adhere to these principles, I believe there will be a drastic drop in deaths and accidents caused by distracted driving. Additionally, intoxicated driving needs to stop. If someone finds themselves under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they need to call someone to drive them, and not put the wheel, and their life, in their hands.

While I make sure to never text and drive, when I hear my phone vibrate, I struggle with not taking that quick glance to see why. I wonder if my family could be having an emergency or if the Detroit Lions lost another game, and take a quick glance to see the reason behind the notification. I could combat this tendency by putting my phone on Do Not Disturb, eliminating any notifications from stealing my attention from the road. Everyone needs to abide by this rule, and we will see a dramatic drop in the number of deaths from car accidents.

Driving schools need to stress the risks of distracted and impaired driving more. They primarily focus on instructing us on how to drive, when they need to put more focus on when to drive. If you look at the statistics surrounding distracted and impaired driving, it seems absolutely stupid to ever attempt it. As people are instructed on the risks of drunk and distracted driving, America will see a sharp decrease in deaths on the road.