Safe Driving

Lauren Schlosser

The Safe Driving Scholarship

From my personal experience, Virginia has made forward progress towards preventative measures in place to combat texting and driving. However, there are still things that can be done to minimize phone use while in the car.

Recently, a hands free law was put into place to not only prevent texting while driving, but all phone use while operating a vehicle. When speaking to local law enforcement about how effective this law has been, they explained that it is relatively difficult to ‘catch’ these offenders for a number of reasons. First, they said that when people see an officer in the general vicinity, they tend to put their phone away and drive especially cautious. These people tend to go right back to being on their phones once they no longer see the patrol car. Another reason as to why it is difficult to pull over texters is due to the fact that it is generally hard to see into cars of larger size, with tinted windows, or on a crowded street. On the contrary, this law has in fact decreased cell phone usage while driving overall because a lot of people do not want to take the chance of getting pulled over and others choose to simply do-the-right thing and follow the laws.

Another factor that is decreasing texting and driving habits is something I have experience with and actively participated in; which is changing the unsafe behaviors for new drivers. YOVASO is a program that stands for Youth of Virginia Speaks Outs. Its primary focus is on influencing teens to drive responsibly and spread the word to their local community. The organization holds an annual retreat each summer in conjunction with Virginia State Police. Here, they have fun simulations, inspirational speakers, and victims/offenders of unsafe driving in order to engage and fully influence the participants. The YOVASO organization engages with numerous high schools across the state to foster individual YOVASO clubs at their respective high schools. These clubs are in place to zone in on specific communities and allow teens to learn about how to prevent safe driving hazards in a peer-to-peer environment. Since being founded over ten years ago, there has been a significant decrease in the number of teen crash fatalities in Virginia.

After my first summer attending a YOVASO retreat, I was so inspired by the event I started my own club at my high school. The first year was successful, but I only had a handful of student participants. By the second year, our club members spiked to almost 100. In my school’s club, I organized four campaigns to occur throughout the academic year. For example, at the “Save Your Tail-Gate” campaign, we hosted it at a home football game. I organized a tent by the entrance before the game where we handed out free hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, and drinks while sharing the message of safe driving. As we did this, we asked the spectators to sign a petition to always wear their seat belts. During the game, we threw foam footballs into the bleachers that displayed our safe driving message. With only 90 or so members, we were able to reach over 1,000 people in this campaign alone. This program is evidence that fostering safe driving habits from a peer to peer tactic is extremely impactful. Furthermore, it instills habits from a preventative standpoint which is easier than trying to break bad habits.

As you can see, there are a number of things in place to prevent texting and driving in the state of Virginia. However, there is more that can be done to help lower the occurrence of this deadly action. For example, I believe that these rules against texting while operating a vehicle should be introduced to people at a young age so they grow up knowing and advocating for zero phone use while behind the wheel. This can be accomplished by engaging all schools to have safe driving clubs. Additionally, during driver education classes the addition of no texting and driving should become part of the standard curriculum. Another solution to prevent texting and driving is to engage automotive manufacturers. By requiring technology as part of the standard safety features for vehicles, technology can be a solution to keep phones from the ability to text while driving. One example of this would be a compartment that stores your phone and locks until the vehicle is in park. Additionally, the vehicle would be unable to be placed in drive mode until the phone is safely stored in the compartment; which can be confirmed by a weight trigger. The only “phone use” permitted could be through the use of bluetooth or a hands-free mode. Something else that can be done is more advanced technology given to traffic officers. Since it is difficult for these officers to physically see the phone, it would be beneficial if law enforcement had a device that could detect phone use, similar to a speed radar gun. This will allow them to more easily enforce the hands free law.

According to the CDC Injury Center, around 3,000 people are killed and 400,000 are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver every single year. In addition, every 1 in 5 of these deaths are people who were not in a car, but maybe walking, biking, or otherwise anywhere outside of a motorized vehicle. These statistics are absurdly frightening; most of the time, the only way to stop people from texting while driving is for them to experience a crash firsthand or know someone who was badly injured and/or killed. With additional consequences for poor drivers, effective education in new drivers, and more technology for vehicles and police officers, we may be able to lower these numbers. We MUST hold poor drivers accountable for their unsafe behaviors. We MUST educate our youth to know right from wrong especially when it comes to distracted driving. We MUST come up with new and improved technology that combats this vehicular offense. Then, and only then, will we be able to make a difference and be one step closer to keeping our roads crash free.