Reducing Driving Related Deaths

While I don’t drive anymore since the pandemic has made my classes online, and when I move to Davis I won’t have to drive either. When I was driving the most common thing that distracted me were texts, I never responded but I always felt the need to read them. Beyond this, I noticed that if I was listening to music I would get super overwhelmed, so I switched to only listening to podcasts or NPR.

A really simple and effective way to stop yourself from reading texts or being distracted by your phone in general is to make sure that when you are driving, your phone is on do not disturb or some sort of mode that limits notifications while driving. This is really effective because you won’t even know if there is a text or other notification, this will allow you to have your full attention on the road.

I will note the actions of my peers however, as they have been much more egregious and I call them out whenever I see it. Many of the people I met while I was in community college would text while they were driving or look at facebook at stoplights, or send snapchats while they were driving. Every single time I was sure to point out how dangerous it was, because these were people I care about. I don’t want them to die because of some silly thing on their phone.

Beyond just my peers, my mom also used to text while she was driving, but my stubbornness got her to stop, she doesn’t do it at all anymore which is really good. Like I said, I don’t really get distracted too much while driving but it is a huge issue in my generation. Most of the people that die from distracted driving are around my age, and they are completely preventable deaths.

The amount of people that die every year from vehicle deaths is truly outrageous, I believe that we should have more public outreach campaigns. I think that those signs on the freeway that tell people not to text and drive work at least to an extent. As well there should be more warnings on phones and the entertainment consoles in newer cars. It’s really important that people truly understand how dangerous the situation is, otherwise they think it’s something that everyone does and it doesn’t pose any threat to anyone.

Some of the most impactful ads I’ve seen are with people who were related to someone that died or had someone killed by a distracted driver. Really showing how the issue can impact normal people like those viewing the ad is really important to convincing people to not be selfish by being distracted while driving. I also believe that law enforcement should police it more strictly, though not just on normal people, many of them themselves die in car accidents due to being distracted while driving. It is a very large issue that doesn’t just affect normal people, but everyone since all of those people are on the road with you and could hit you and change your life in an instant.

Another leading cause of deaths in vehicle collisions is because people are under the influence of either alcohol or drugs. More than 10000 people were killed in drunk driving accidents in 2019 alone. I believe that a more compassionate approach should be given to tho

Our justice system believes that just throwing someone in jail and fining them will get them to change their behavior. However the data shows that this has a negative effect. The United States has one of the highest recidivism rates for all types of crimes but for DUI’s it is almost 1 in 3. This only explanation for that is an underlying disease, such as alcoholism or addiction, jail doesn’t fix these diseases, treatment by a professional does.

There are, however, deaths that could only be prevented by better awareness through driver education. Such as making sure that people know what to do during snowy or icy conditions, better explanations of how chains and winter tires work. As well as further outreach to make sure that adults learn about how driving works multiple times throughout their lives rather than just during highschool drivers education. Outreach campaigns by cities to offer weekend classes on ways to keep adults and their children safe could certainly work, as well as incentives given by state governments or even mandates for frequent and in depth drivers education could help greatly with environmental vehicle deaths.

Overall, driving deaths are an epidemic that has caused untold hurt and sadness for many families across this country. I hope that some of the solutions I present in this essay hit home and hopefully those that read it either make a change in their own life or those in their lives. Making smarter decisions and encouraging those around you to further their own education surrounding the operation of vehicles would make a huge difference in the amount of people we lose every year I believe.