The Luxury of Driving

Dont text and drive scholarship

I pledge to not text and drive because I have heard of the atrocities that stem from a brief glance at a text that would soon be trivial compared to an “I’m in the hospital” text.

The Second Industrial Revolution set the groundwork for the development of automobiles, planes, trains, and other automotive vehicles. In the late nineteenth century, cars would take over as the predominant form of transportation. As time progressed cars became more advanced, so the requirements to drive these deadly yet useful machines became more “strict.” In the 21st century, most age-eligible people in the United States drive cars. This can be traced to U.S. citizens wanting independence and privacy; Europe takes a different approach using trains and buses as their primary means of transportation. All drivers take up responsibility for their passengers and trust other drivers to know the rules of the road. Iowa’s age requirements to drive are 14 ½ years old with a driver’s education to get a school permit. Whereas Illinois requires a driver’s education, but cannot drive until 15 years old. These subtle but impactful differences affect all drivers on the road from across the country. Choosing an age to safely start driving is an impossible task, but educating how to drive safely is achievable.

Several situations need to be discussed to allow for safe driving. Understanding that all substances such as drugs and alcohol should not be used before driving a vehicle. These impair your judgment and lead to poor and slow decision-making. Not doing substances before driving is fully preventable and the correlation between drunk driving and fatal deaths is visible. Therefore, if drunk driving decreases so will fatal deaths caused by motor accidents.

Another fully preventable part of driving a vehicle is wearing a seatbelt. Seatbelts allow protection against flying out of the car in the case of a car accident. They are there to save your life, and by not wearing one you are putting yourself at a greater risk. Keeping your car up-to-date on its oil, tire pressure, gas, and routine engine checks will allow you to safely drive your car stress free. Doing preventive work on your car may not be “fun” but decreasing fatal outcomes outweighs everything else.

Nothing is fun about a funeral. Nothing is fun about knowing these fatal outcomes could have been prevented by more in-depth education. Being educated about appropriate reactions to road rage, how to not text and drive, and learning your multi-tasking capabilities. For example, if you cannot talk on the phone and drive at the same time without losing focus you should not do so. Put your phone on silent, put your phone in the backseat, and do whatever is necessary to keep you safe. In this day and age, there are even apps designed to help drivers avoid texting while driving. Apple phones have a driving detector that silences notifications automatically or when it senses your speed increase. Driving involves a lot of focus on many parts of the car and outside of the car. Such as music, passengers, other drivers, signs, exits, and animals. Now, this may sound like common sense but I assure you that it is not. One topic I think that needs to be consistently addressed and in great detail is speeding.

Perhaps painting a story will allow me to convey this message. Imagine your freshly 16-year-old daughter just got her license, she is ecstatic. She is ready to go explore the world with her newfound freedom. Independence is all she can think about, no is not a word in her vocabulary. Keep in mind her driving test consisted of driving around at the speed limit with little to no interaction with other vehicles in a stressful manner. Flash forward to coming home from a friend’s house late at night. She is racing home to make her curfew, going 20mph over the speed limit, she is frantically texting you that she is almost home. That brief moment of distraction caused her to lose focus of the road, it was just a quick text message, yet it caused her to miss the stop sign. The outcome of this can end in numerous ways, but that is just an example of the reality of these situations for young drivers. My bad experience with being a youthful driver involves icy roads and a lack of education.

In June 2020, Covid put driver’s education online, so instead of in-person instruction, I received Zoom calls. I would never pay attention to the information provided because I felt I already knew everything about driving and how to react to stressful situations. This may be shocking information, but by not paying attention I did not know right-of-way, left-hand turns, or how to drive on icy roads. In December I got my school permit, which was the ability to drive to school and school functions. One icy morning on the way to basketball practice I swerved into the other lane and landed into a snowy ditch. The roads were fully covered with ice, yet I failed to realize that going 55mph and using cruise control was not a safe decision. I was driving a different car than normal which caused me to overturn. From this car accident, I realized I needed to do better as a driver because if a car had been in the other lane I would be dead. There is no way to brush that over or make it sound less serious than it is. These are deadly machines that are taken for granted as simple transportation devices.

Driving is a luxury, a privilege that should not be abused or misused. Knowing the proper way to care for your vehicle and how to react to stressful situations is highly important when driving a vehicle. Being a safe, responsible, and careful driver is the best kind of driver. Do not take advantage of this privilege given to you as a new driver. Overall, be safe, not sorry.