Distracted Driving

As soon as I heard the trunk’s glass breaking behind me, I knew it was over. We had gotten into a car accident. I was 8 years old when me and my family were driving back home after a fun night at Chuck E Cheese. The driver was distracted on their phone when they hit us on the rear end of my dad’s car. This was me and my two younger sister’s first car accident and us being young kids, we got really scared and started crying. My mom had to go to the hospital because of the impact and the car had to get towed away. A fun day out with my family ended up being one of the most traumatic nights I ever had.

Distracted driving can get people injured or even killed. There’s three types of distracted driving: visual, manual, and cognitive. Visual distracted driving is when you take your eyes off the road to look at something else. Manual distracted driving is when you take your hands off the wheel to do something else besides driving. Cognitive distracted driving is when you think about something else that is not driving. It’s really important to focus while driving or else you can get into serious trouble in the future.

In October 2020, me and my sisters went into my mom’s car and my dad went into his own after an eye appointment. We went back home without thinking much of it and then we got a phone call. My dad says he got into a car accident at the gas station not even 3 blocks away from our house. We ran to the gas station and saw the aftermath. My dad went to turn into the gas station’s entrance and a distracted driver turned at the same time, even though my dad had the right of way first. The front part of both cars was destroyed and they had to get towed away. My dad was fine but he went to the hospital just in case.

According to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), about 3,000 people die every year because of distracted driving. EndDD says 8% is fatal crucationashes, 15% is injury crashes, 14% of 2018 crashes were all distracted driving related. They also mention how 400,000 people were injured and 2,841 people were killed from distracted driving in April 2020. CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) talks about how 25% of distracted drivers are ages 20-29 years old, 8% are ages 15-19 year olds, and 9% of teens were killed in a distracted driving crash. In 2019, 39% of high school students admitted to texting or emailing while driving. It’s more common between white students (44%) than Black (30%) or Hispanic students (35%). It’s also more common for students with As or Bs to text and drive than students with Cs, Ds, or Fs. Students who text and drive most likely don’t wear a seat belt, ride with a drunk driver, and are more likely to be a drunk driver.

So many sad statistics but how do we stop distracted driving? Well there are many ways drivers can combat it. Don’t multitask while driving. That can be things like eating food or calling someone, these are things you can do before or after driving, not during. In the US state of Connecticut, 16-17 year old drivers are not allowed to use hands free devices while driving. However, you can use it after you turn 18 years old. You can even use apps that will help you limit you from using your phone. Passengers can also remind the distracted driver to focus on driving and help assist with navigation or other tasks if it becomes a problem.

I finished taking Driver’s Education classes late October and I learned a lot after those 2 months. We watched hour long videos of stories of distracted drivers getting into bad car accidents. My teacher also showed us many photos of car accidents that happened in our town. It was very shocking to see how bad car accidents can get and how easily someone can lose their life just by an irresponsible driver.

Like I mentioned above, ways I usually combat distracted driving is by helping the driver out when it comes to navigation and texting. When I drive, I always keep my phone far away from me like my bag or on the passenger seat. This doesn’t seem like much but it can definitely help you from not getting into a dangerous situation. Distracted driving happens more often than you think but if we keep ourselves focused, then we’re always a few steps ahead to a safer future.