Road Safety: Still a Big Problem

They’ve put the driving death count back up. That means thing are getting better. The thought came to me when my family was zipping down the highway. For more than a year, the electronic sign near our exit had displayed Covid positivity rates in the state of Hawaii, but recently, those rates have fallen. For the moment, the sign displays what it used to before the pandemic: the amount of people who have died in traffic accidents since the start of the year. But while the return of that number signaled that Covid cases were down, it also serves to highlight another big problem, and one that I would argue has fewer clear solutions. How do we bring that number down to zero? Let’s examine the question.

In the modern world, driving is probably the most dangerous thing we do regularly. We shoot ourselves down roadways in big metal boxes powered by liquified dinosaur bones. And while many modern cars are wonders of technology with oodles of safety features, the drivers are still just people, and people make mistakes all the time. The issue with cars is that a little mistake can become a deadly accident. And even when there aren’t serious injuries, car accidents are still costly and stressful for everyone involved. A couple of years ago my family’s car got rear ended by a huge commercial truck, and while thankfully no one was injured, we did have to total the car and get a new one because the back looked like crumpled paper. And that was all while we were going relatively slowly. If we’d been on the freeway, and going about forty miles faster, it probably would’ve taken a lot more than a phone call to the insurance agency to sort things out. And the driver of the truck had only made a small error, misjudging the distance between our vehicle and his, and assuming that he’d be able to stop in time.

Because I’ve been learning to drive, I recently finished a driver’s education course and have been practicing my driving. And even in the short time I’ve been on the road, I’ve noticed three really common driving habits that aren’t safe. Fixing these three things could significantly reduce deaths on the roadway.

First, let’s talk about speeding. When exactly did driving ten to fifteen miles above the speed limit become the norm in America? A big problem with this is that it kind of forces everyone to play along and go faster. But speed limits aren’t just arbitrary numbers, they’re set with safety in mind. We can talk all we like in driver’s ed about how you should always stick to the speed limit, but when you’re on the roadway and everyone around you is going ten miles above it, it may actually be safer for you to go faster.

In the vein of pressure to drive unsafely, I have to mention tailgating. I cannot tell you how many times I have been peacefully driving along the roadway at the speed limit only to have someone else, clearly frustrated that I’m not driving faster, get uncomfortably close. I don’t know why anyone thinks it’s a good idea to tailgate, especially someone who clearly has “student driver” stickers all over their car. But a lot of rear-end type traffic accidents happen because of a combination of driving too fast and being too close to the car ahead of you. When I was driving, I witnessed a read-end accident at pretty high speeds, and while no one seemed hurt, there was broken glass everywhere. The accident only happened because one car screeched to a halt and the other was going too fast to stop in time. Tailgating is often done to try and force another driver to go faster, or because someone feels like they need to get somewhere that much quicker and isn’t thinking about the potential consequences of that choice.

To finish the trifecta of poor driving choices, let’s look at distracted driving. Thankfully, this one seems to be less common nowadays, probably because of various state laws preventing the use of cellphones in the car and very successful public awareness campaigns against drunk driving. It’s important to note that distracted driving takes many forms, from driving under the influence of substances, to using technology in the car, to just being sleepy or preoccupied at the wheel.

On a more individual level, the best we can do is try and drive safely, and to challenge unsafe driving habits when we see them in our friends and family. Despite the tailgating, I continue to drive at the speed limit, and I don’t use my phone when I’m in the driver’s seat. But not everyone feels that taking those steps are important, so how can we reach more people? By acting on a wider scale.

Laws and educational campaigns are the two big ways we can inspire sweeping societal change. Of the two, I’d argue the latter is better, because legal punishment for speeding has its problems– it’s difficult to prove and fines effectively mean that speeding is only illegal if you don’t have money to spare. Education is the way to go. But what does that look like?
Well I think it makes sense to structure campaigns against speeding and tailgating like we have done for drunk driving or wearing seatbelts. PSAs for driving issues tend to use three strategies– slogans, stats, and scares. Slogans– like “click it or ticket,” and “drive sober or get pulled over”– serve to make safe driving tips snappy and easy to remember. Statistics– like the electronic board showing traffic deaths– serve to educate the public on what exactly they’re risking when they drive unsafely. And scares, often in the form of seeing the wreckage caused by traffic accidents or hearing from people injured in them, really help drive the message home. These public campaigns are also good because while driver’s education mostly helps new drivers, public service campaigns can reach everyone. So if you’re trying to figure out how to promote safe driving, just remember the Three S’s– slogans, stat, and scares– and you’ll have an awesome public service campaign in no time.