Avoidable Distractions

Taylor Ewing

March 31, 2021

Avoidable Distractions

The summer before entering 4th grade my family got into a major car crash. We were on our way home from camping and turning left into my grandparents driveway to pick up my brother. We had been completely stopped with our blinker on but, because there was no turn lane, we had to stop with oncoming traffic. As we were waiting for a space to turn, the car behind us crashed into us without having slowed down at all. This was due to the driver being distracted, he claimed to have not seen us at all. The person who hit us ended up trapped in their truck on the railroad tracks and my family spun into oncoming traffic, fortunately my father had released the breaks when he realized the person was not paying attention. Because of their inability to focus on the road ahead of them when driving, my family and I were hit twice, once from behind and also from oncoming traffic, and the second truck we hit rolled. This accident injured both of my parents and my sister, all of which could have easily been avoided.

This experience has led me to naturally refusing to look or pick up my phone when I am driving, though I do not often have my phone visible in the car, as well as being very cautious when I am driving. My caution is not because I think the other drivers do not know the driving laws but because I cannot see what they are doing. While I am unable to touch my phone when I am driving, I know many other drivers do not have this natural response and fear when driving. In order to reduce any possible temptation, I leave my phone in my backpack. However if my phone is on me or visible, simply touching my phone while I am driving makes me extremely uncomfortable. In addition, I also use an app that sends a text message letting anyone who texted me know that I am driving and will contact them later without disturbing me. Both of these methods, keeping my phone out of sight and having it send automatic messages that I am driving, allow me to focus completely on what is happening on the road and the different areas around me.

So while a person’s phone is a major distraction and one of the more common ones in the current years, it is not the only one. Anything from changing the radio station or volume to speaking to the person in the passenger seat can count as distractions as they divide the drivers attention between the road and what they are doing within the car. One of the ways I prevent getting distracted by the radio is by connecting my phone to BlueTooth and choosing what music playlist I want before I take my car out of park and place my phone in my backpack. By doing this, it removes the possibility of scrolling through radio stations in order to hear actual music and not just commercials. Though it is harder to prevent getting distracted by passengers when driving, it is important that drivers establish that while they are driving they may not respond but they are focused and any important conversations should wait until they are at their destination. Due to setting this boundary, the driver will not have to worry about missing significant information as well as clearly explaining that their lack of participation in a conversation is simply a precaution.

While I do these methods unconsciously when I get in my car to drive, many people, especially teenagers, do not. This is unfortunate because a large amount of car accidents, like the one that happened to my family, could have been avoided. Programs to educate people on the dangers of distracted driving should be promoted in a similar fashion as programs about drinking and driving. Much like how Every 15 Minutes is shown to high schoolers to bring awareness to drinking and driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics have shown that car accidents caused by distracted driving is six times more likely than drunk driving. Every 15 Minutes has been a major part in reducing the number deaths caused by drinking and driving, however due to how new cell phones are, programs that emphasize distracted driving are just starting to come into effect. While these programs are not going to eliminate distracted driving, they will help bring both awareness and provide different ways to prevent a large number of deaths in the future. This is not to take away from programs about drinking and driving but to better demonstrate how dangerous driving can be when distracted.