Distracted driving

It was 5:00 pm and I was on the way to my car after practice. I recall at 5:05, I started driving and came across a red stoplight, and with no hesitation I proceeded to pull out my phone and began scrolling through Instagram, checking my notifications and messages. The light turns green, but I don’t notice right away. As the car behind me honks I start to drive slowly, trying to regain my thoughts for the text message I was about to send. At 5:10, I get another text message while at a stoplight and I pick up my phone to text that person back. At 5:15, I received a call while driving and look at my phone placed in the seat next to me, not even noticing in two and a half seconds, that my car had drifted into the lane beside mine. I hear a big loud honk causing me to swerve even more dangerously, putting everyone’s and my life at risk. I drive off, again trying to regain my thoughts for the message I was about to send. I was nervous, anxiously pressing the keys on the screen as I accelerated down the street. At 5:20, I pull out my phone again, trying to change the music that was playing while the person driving next to me decided to swerve in front of me at the last minute, causing me to get into a head-on crash and suffer immense injuries, along with the person in the other car.

Distracted driving is the act of driving while engaging in other activities which distract the driver’s attention away from the road. Distractions are shown to compromise the safety of the driver, passengers, pedestrians, and people in other vehicles. Distracted driving can become a habit, an addiction, and a death threat. People get distracted by anything, including their phones, reading, disturbances on the road, and loud music from their cars and others. The situation I got into earlier could’ve easily been avoided, had I been more aware. When we got to court for the accident, the police ends up pulling up my phone records and ending up finding out I was on my phone at the time, causing me to lose the entire case. In view of the fact that I was in debt to the person driving, I also had no car to transport me to work to make money. Which placed me between a rock and a hard place in my life. Even though driving is a privilege, a lot of horrible things can happen when used irresponsibly.

For example, Florida, is one of the main tourist attractions in the United States, is one of the most accident-prone places in the US. Traffic over time becomes unmanageable, leading to more and more driving violations and accidents. During a year, Florida rounds up to have at least 350,000 accidents state-wise. There are many reasons and causes as to why many accidents occur in Florida, such as speeding limit violations. All Florida speeding limits are made to ensure passengers arrive at their destination safely. Many tourists and visitors violate that and go well over the speed limit, causing accidents and/or putting others in danger on the road. It gives others on the road less time to react to changes and navigate through the roads. People also fail to obey traffic lights, causing side-impact crashes, resulting in serious fatal injuries. There are many other causes of accidents in Florida, for instance, many people text while driving, and a lot of people drive while intoxicated, whether it’s from alcohol or drug substances. Under Florida law, your bodily alcohol content shouldn’t be 0.08% or higher. Drunk driving impairs your ability to think or see clearly on the roads or operate in a normal manner. This not only brings harm to you but also brings harm to other people on the roads as well. Over 100,000 people die each year in alcohol or drug-related accidents yearly in the United States. People also fail to obey traffic lights, causing side and front-impact crashes, resulting in serious fatal injuries.

Now, there are three main types of distracted driving. Visual, Cognitive, and Manual. Visual distraction leads to you taking your eyes off the road, Cognitive is when you take your mind off of the road, while Manual equals you taking your hands off the steering wheel or manually letting go of something used to control the vehicle. Distracted driving comes in all types of forms but it is important we are aware of the dangers it can lead to, so we take the proper precautions.