Distracted Driving: Learn Before Something Happens

Distracted Driving: Learn Before Something Happens

Three seconds. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Something that most people learn in kindergarten is something that could change their lives forever. Three seconds is all it takes for a distracted driver to cause a crash. My mother was in a crash when she was in college, right around the age that I am now. She was driving and her friend was in the passenger seat. A drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit their car going forty miles-per-hour head on. My mother’s car was totaled, and the only thing that saved both her and her friend’s life was their seatbelts. Thankfully, she and her friend did not have any lasting medical effects of this crash, but many are not as lucky. My mom almost died because of a distracted driver and there are too many people who have died because of distracted driving. Distracted driving needs to be stopped to best abilities of the law and the education system to allow for the least amount of accidents to happen.

As I have gotten older, there has been ever changing laws on distracted driving, especially because of cell phones. In my home state of Iowa, there was a law passed in July of 2019 that made texting while driving a primary offense. This means that one is now able to be pulled over for texting, rather than an officer needing a different reason to pull a person over rather than just for texting. While this could help curb the effects of people texting while driving, this does not help everyone. Most people know that is a terrible idea to text and drive and yet they still do it. The only question that is left is why?

This question could be answered by the influence of cell phones and social media on the lives of everyone in developed countries. In order to help combat the use of cell phones on the roads, one must first start by educating others by explaining the effects of social media in the classroom. Social media begs one’s attention at very second of very day. With this, many young people have become addicted to this dopamine raise and cannot stop even just to drive to their school. This is a problem that needs to be addressed as seriously as being addicted to drugs or alcohol is addressed. Along with this, people are now expected to be constantly available. This is a problem because they are unable to put their phone down and relax while they drive, as they feel as they might miss a text. While education about the techniques of driving is essential, the effects of what could cause distracted driving and why is essential as well.

Education is key to fixing most problems. The more people know, the more people have a moral obligation to not due the wrong thing. This is why driver’s education is a multi-level process. The first being that start driver’s education at a reasonable age. In my home state, I was able to take driver’s education at the age of fourteen. This may be a little young as many of these people are not mature yet and therefore may not know the ramifications of distracted driving. Along with this, there should be incremental driver’s licenses that slowly release restrictions for a teen looking to drive. This allows for some restriction with the law that allows for serious consequences if a teen breaks these laws. Now the next two are a little unconventional for education about distracted driving, but they are essential. The first is education about social media and how it can be addicting. This could help a teen realize that there is in fact a problem and try to fight this problem, rather than succumbing to their addiction. Along with this, within the distracted driving education, there should be taught a little philosophy. This would allow for many teens to see that there is a moral obligation for them to not hurt or harm other people. Currently, most people do not get this unless they attend college and they should be learning about this moral obligation much sooner. In general, the education for driving should be diverse and an incremental process. Hopefully with this education, the amount of deaths because of distracted driving would be reduced.

For my own driving, I could use a nice refresher course on how to be the safest driver. I would love there to be an “Adult Driver’s Ed Refresher” so that I was able to be reminded of some of the things that I learned almost six years ago already. My mother’s story made me not wanted to text, drive impaired, and really try to keep my focus on the road which helps a lot. But it is not a good way to learn that lesson. I try to tell her story to others to try to help them understand why I take their phone out of their hands while they are driving. Or if I would rather them to take an uber or give me the keys if they have been drinking.

All in all, distracted driving is preventable. As a nation, we need to find the best way to educate our teens so that they can be the safest and most responsible drivers that they are able to be. Now some of this comes with age and maturity, but there are multiple steps that can be taken to prevent distracted driving before they even get on the road.