Responsible Driving

Being a safe driver is more than just staying in your lane and stopping when the light is red. Being a safe driver means understanding the responsibility that comes with operating heavy machinery. It means paying attention to the world around you at all times and with all of your focus. It means understanding that just one moment of distraction could mean a person loses their life.

I live in Fargo, North Dakota with my mom, my dad, my brother, and my dog. Last year, my brother was attending the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and was four hours away from our family. Everything was going fine until one day we got a call that my brother, Joey, was hit by another car at an intersection. The other driver was distracted and failed to stop at the red light. It was just a moment that they weren’t paying attention, but my brother was lucky that he had gotten far enough forward that the other driver hit the back seat instead of the front, because if it weren’t for that, he might not be with us today.

Ever since that incident, I have taken much more responsibility over my driving. Before that happened, I honestly didn’t think driving was a huge deal. But realizing that I almost lost my brother because someone lost focus for one second made me truly understand what I was risking every time I got behind the wheel.

I believe that the main reason people don’t understand the reality of the dangers of driving is because a driver’s test is fairly easy. As long as you stop at all of the stop signs and use your turn signal, you are fairly likely to get a license. But anyone can stay focused while they know they are being tested; as soon as people get comfortable behind the wheel, they tend to get sloppy. It starts with just getting a quick coffee on the way to work. Then just driving through because lunch is short. Then you just have to take a quick call. Then just answer a short text. And then you just have to see what your friend posted. And then you just have to check the weather for the next day. And suddenly you don’t see the world around you and your car stops moving when you didn’t touch the brake. All of those little things that don’t seem like a big deal add up to a lot of time not looking where you are going and not looking where other people are going. Often even I will make up an excuse for myself like, “this is really important,” or, “this won’t take any time at all,” but no excuse will get you out of a hospital bed.

I know that in today’s increasingly virtual world it is becoming easier and easier for people to have their phone in their hands at all times. And although car companies are doing their best to allow people to use hands-free technology in their cars, old habits die hard. And I don’t think a lot of people would find it easy to be without their phone screens while they are driving.

Life becomes more and more distracting every day. All we can hope for is that it doesn’t take a car crash for people to realize the responsibility that it takes to get behind the wheel.