My family has a bad history with distracted drivers leading to many totaled cars and injuries. Many times over the course of my life I have had to sit through doctor appointments and phone calls explaining the different consequences of the accident and resulting trauma. Even though I knew these implications on my grandmother, mom, dad and others lives I had never experienced that moment up until November 28th 2022.

That day has been ingrained in my memory to this day because of the events leading up. My grandmother picked up my younger sister and I from school and at that time I was in 11th grade and my sister was in 9th grade. We had a club so we left school later than normal and we took the back road home to avoid traffic. It all happened so fast. One second I am looking out the window at the neighborhood we were passing and another second I hear screaming. The car was spinning for only a moment, but it felt like forever. We finally came to a stop and my mind is racing. I can only think of getting out of the car and making sure everyone was safe. It was a stressful time as I was trying to get my grandmother out of the driver's side, the man who hit us just kept apologizing and saying how he didn’t see us. I asked myself all the time how the situation could have been avoided, but the reality is that I didn’t know what was going through his head while making the turn, totaling my grandmother’s new car, and leaving me with newfound anxiety for driving.

When the police talked to the man who hit us, he told the officer that he thought could make the turn before we passed them because he initially didn’t register our presence. That experience showcased the distraction of wanting to get to the destination early. Most instances people are distracted with physical items like phones, gps, or radios, but there are many instances where people do not pay attention to the road and driving because they are distracted by their thoughts. The mind is processing destinations, arrival times, sometimes conversations and all with the main concern of driving. These are detrimental to others on the road. Many people have totaled cars, trauma, or even lost their life because drivers are focusing their attention on other objects like phones and radios versus awareness of road safety and overall spatial awareness.

Similar to others experiences with distracted drivers, I grew a fear of driving for some time. Although I was scared, I developed healthy driving habits which help me be a safer driver to this day. Some of these habits should be added as a reminder sticker in cars so that drivers remember to do these actions before leaving their location. One habit is to set the location on the GPS before leaving. This ensures that drivers have their set destination and don’t have to worry about figuring out the directions while driving. Another helpful tip was setting the music on a playlist or having a set radio before leaving. This especially helped me have my music playing without worrying about the end or having songs I don’t like.

It should be recognized that we are human and we will get distracted even with the precautions in place. I have my own shares of wanting to change the playlist or wanting to go to a different location mid-drive in which I do look at my phone. Similarly my sisters and cousins may do the same, but something that is important to remember is that when you are behind the wheel and others are in the car, it is helpful for others to change the music or reroute the gps to ensure everyone's safety in the vehicle.

Other ways to help remind young drivers to focus on the road are different awareness week activities. This can be done through educational workshops where high school, college, and vocational students can participate in activities that increase awareness of distracted driving. Another method is to use social media outreaches through Tiktok, Instagram, and Snapchat feeds that include statistics of distracted driving and its negative effects. It is important to not completely criticize those who are distracted because it can instead emphasize the shunning of those people instead of encouraging better habits of safe driving.

Distracted driving and the fight against it is enforced in some clubs in highschool and overall not really mentioned in college or vocational school. It is important to continue to inform young drivers to ensure common understanding of what distracted driving includes and the detrimental effects it has on not only individuals but also as a society. It is important to remember that distracted driving not only affects the driver, but also the other passengers, the other cars involved and the emotional and psychological impacts on everyone involved. It is a danger that is avoidable and above all it is a choice that we make every time we enter the car to drive. Do we choose to risk the lives of others around us or do we respect ourselves and others by setting the phone, food, drinks, gps, radio and mental concerns aside to focus on the road.

It is very necessary to not only inform young drivers, but also upcoming new young drivers of the expectations of road safety and how to not be a distracted driver. This enables a constant reminder to the younger generation on how to focus on driving and the different ways to keep themselves and others safe. Some activities to include are promoting slogans like “Wise up, eyes up” or “Slow it down and focus on the ride”. Including posters and guest speakers for different distracted driving awareness weeks reinforce the seriousness of the danger of distracted driving.

Overall, distracted driving can have detrimental effects on everyone involved including the lawsuits, psychological and physical damage. All of these are easily avoidable by focusing on driving and setting aside phones, food, and music. It is very important to reinforce this idea to young drivers to continue the practice of safe driving.