A couple years ago, my fathers friends’ son had found out his wife was having twins. The twins ended up being born prematurely with complications at birth. They had to stay in the nicu wing at the hospital for months, taking care of the babies and trying to get them to a healthy weight. One night, his wife was driving back from the hospital to get some sleep while her husband was taking a shift and staying with the babies. She was driving home, and within a few minutes, a drunk driver smashed into her car and took her life. She had to leave her two newborns along with her husband and family to live on without her help and it was not her choice. This tragic event opened up my eyes to the dangers of not just drunk or distracted driving, but the dangers of the passenger that is sober and being directly affected by the drunk driver's horrible actions. Being alert and aware of your surroundings as a driver is not only important for your safety while driving, but being aware of the other drivers around you.
To reduce deaths while driving, there should be more awareness in drivers ed classes with more classes dedicated to sharing the stories of those affected. Teaching students when they first start driving is important because this is when they learn all the information about driving and what kind of driver they will be. Parents and teachers being good influences by teaching kids what not to do while driving while also practicing what they preach is detrimental to establishing good habits that their kids will one day follow. There should be more discussion on drunk driving, distracted driving, and phones being away while driving. This can be done with more lessons added into the curriculum as well as sharing stories and experiences to bring awareness to it. Young drivers are the most vulnerable since they have friends they’re driving around that can be loud and rowdy. The volume in some cars is capped very high so having the volume cap set lower can reduce the amount of distractions in the car. There should be police enforcement of this as well as a legal limit to the volume in cars. Another factor of distracted driving is phone usage. Some phones try to detect when you’re driving but it’s not enough. Phones should detect when you are driving and not allow you to open your phone at all. There are already really good resources out there like Uber for when people are unable to drive for various reasons such as needing to work on the way or if they are drunk. Again, police enforcement for phone usage while driving should also be implemented. Police enforcement of any distracted or drunk driving can really make an impact on someone since they won’t want to get a ticket again.
I make sure to reduce distracted driving by promising myself to never drive if I’ve had any drinks, keeping my dad’s friends story in the back of my mind. I also try to set my music beforehand so that I am not touching my phone while I am driving to change the music. I make sure that the driver is doing the same by setting the music for them and letting them drive instead of worrying about music. There have been many instances in my life where I’ve watched family members or friends think they are innocently going on their phones while driving, resulting in an accident or a ticket. Two examples that come to mind are when my friend was driving a group of us to school and one of the guys in the back had something to show us on his phone and she turned around to look. Her foot came off the brake pedal and she rear ended the car in front of her. It was very stressful for her and the people in the passenger seats were quiet. Another instance was when my mom was driving and she had her phone in her hand. She was hanging up a call that she could’ve easily let the other person hang up on but she was pulled over by a cop. She got a ticket and she was very angry about it. Even though they seem like small examples, my mom now is more cautious since she knows cops are going to pull her over and not let it slide like she thought she would. My friend is more aware of where her feet are on the pedal when she is stopped and doesn’t allow any distractions so her foot won’t slip.
People don’t normally learn their lesson until they’ve almost crashed or have crashed. By sharing stories and bringing awareness to these accidents, people put themselves in their shoes and want to make a change. Police enforcement is essential to ensuring people will be motivated to drive safely. Eliminating distractions, like phones and loud music, through phone features that don’t allow phone usage while driving and through implementation of laws to turn down music can reduce the amount of phone related accidents. We have to start education when people are young and in drivers ed with more class time related to talking about distracted and drunk driving makes it easier to pledge to never do it.