Dissuade Distracted Driving

My airbags never deployed but the other guy’s sure did. I don’t think he got out of his car for ten minutes – he was still sitting, stunned, in the driver’s seat by the time my Dad arrived. I called Dad once my crippled Ford came to rest against the curb. He later told me that I sounded so calm he thought it was just a fender bender, no big deal. The reality is I sounded calm because I was in shock.

I left the house a few minutes later than I knew I should have. I usually left a few minutes late. Pole vault practice was 45 minutes away in suburban Chicago rush hour traffic. As I settled in for three-quarters of an hour alone with my thoughts, my brain went into auto-pilot and steered the car – not down the main thoroughfare that would take me to the interstate highway, but through a maze of side streets that I knew from practice would help me avoid at least three traffic lights and shave precious seconds off my commute. My hands and feet (I drive a stick shift) quietly went through their motions and my mind dwelt on homework assignment, college choices, social drama, and other high school fare.

The first thing I recall after impact was calling my Dad. Next I climbed out of the driver’s seat and confirmed that I seemed to be physically intact. Third, I surveyed the damage to my beloved Ford Fusion, “Cronk.” Not that I needed to get out to know that the passenger door, which caught the brunt of the oncoming Honda, was crumped halfway over the passenger seat. I looked at the exterior and while I am no mechanic I knew that Cronk was in trouble.

Before my Dad or the police arrived I knew what I had done. I came to a complete stop at the stop sign. Having performed my assigned duty, I accelerated quickly through the intersection, eager to bypass the traffic on the main drag 200 feet to my right and get to the gym in time. Trouble is, I did not look at the crossing traffic, nor did my distracted mind register that it was a 2-way, not 4-way stop; crossing traffic had no obligation to stop, or anticipate that I might pull out directly in front of a Honda moving 40 miles per hour (in a 25 mph zone), no doubt in his own hurry.

My Dad told me the collision I experienced is called a “T-Bone.”

The police who came to the scene were very kind and did not even give me a ticket, although they made clear that I deserved one for failure to yield to oncoming traffic. Cronk and the Honda were both total losses. Fortunately, neither the other driver and I were injured and my Dad wasn’t angry.

I caused the accident by failing to realize that oncoming traffic had no stop sign and by failing to sufficiently look both ways before proceeding across the cross street. But in fact, the accident started earlier when I decided to pull out of my driveway late and not focusing on driving.

I took driver’s education and I am confident that I knew the rules of the road when I obtained my license. But one topic from which I would have benefitted is more discussion of the dangers of distracted driving. Knowing the rules of the road is essential – but when a driver’s full attention is not on the road, the rules can’t help her. Such was the case with me and Cronk. I didn’t fail to yield and cause an accident because I didn’t know the rules, I failed because I was rushing on autopilot and devoting less than my full attention to what the motorists around me were doing.

We need to take all reasonable efforts to eliminated distracted driving among teens. It is easy for a teen to take the privilege of driving for granted and slip behind the wheel while dwelling on every challenge and anxiety in her life except the important task at hand of safely operating a motor vehicle. I contend that driver’s education courses for teens should spend at least as much time on the dangers of distracted driving as on the evils of driving while intoxicated. After all, we all know that drunk driving is illegal and foolish; but how many teens are keenly aware that distracted driving also puts lives at risk? We are taught not to text and drive, and rightfully so – but just because the phone is put away does not mean the driver is not distracted from maximum attention to the road. Let’s educate teens that when you step behind the wheel, it is not enough to put away your phone. Leaving with sufficient time to reach your destination, planning the safest route, and putting aside any distracting thoughts that would keep you from 100% focus on your surroundings and safely operating your vehicle are similarly essential.

I always leave an extra ten minutes to get to pole vault practice now, and I focus much more clearly on other motorists and the road ahead of me. If I had been taught to do so in the first place, maybe one fewer air bag would have deployed and maybe Cronk would still be driving me to my destinations.