Focus at the Forefront: The Importance of Concentration

A broken claw clip, a crash, a scream, my mom’s panicked face through a car window while I cried out of little more than confusion…this is all I remember of the one car accident I have been in. I was three years old, and my mom had just pulled out of the driveway of our neighborhood park when a careless driver rear-ended our small vehicle. She was crying too. My mom told me later that the car had ‘accordioned’ on impact, and that she had not been able to open the rear door to get me out, which is why she had been so panicked. Eventually, she had given up trying to open the crushed door and had instead crawled through the front seats to extricate me safely. The other driver was not drunk, high, angry, or sleep-deprived, she simply had not been paying attention. A lack of attention such as this is very dangerous when behind the wheel, and I believe that actively working to reduce careless driving is one of the most important steps to be taken in reducing deaths related to driving. 

Of course, the most common cause of driving-related fatalities in the United States is driving under the influence of alcohol. Other drugs can produce similar effects, so one should always work to spread awareness of the dangers related to driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. This is something that can be done in friend groups and small communities, but also in wider circles. My high school sign language teacher’s niece, who she had raised as a daughter, was tragically killed by a drunk driver some years ago, and she has never stopped advocating for stricter penalties for drunk driving as well as raising awareness of this issue. The heartbreaking tragedy which she endured motivated her to help ensure that as few people as possible have to go through what she did. She is very much a role model for me when it comes to advocating for policies to make our streets more safe, as well as advocacy in general. 

There are, however, many other causes of careless driving. One of these causes is being emotionally overcome by anger, sadness, or some other feeling. Another is being too sleep-deprived to properly focus. Often, people drive even when they know they are too tired to focus because they feel as if they desperately need to get somewhere at a certain time, certainly a relatable feeling for me. However, the cause that is probably the most overlooked is simply trying to multitask while driving. I know many people who think nothing of texting, eating, doing their makeup, or passing some item to a passenger in the backseat while driving (these are people I generally try my utmost never to be a passenger of). However, these things can actually be extremely dangerous to the lives of those in the car and others on the road. Multitasking inherently means that some of one’s attention is diverted from the immediate task at hand of driving, and that makes one less alert and aware of possible dangers on the road. 

All of this matters because driver education is the single most important factor in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving. An educated driver is one who knows how dangerous it is to drive while under the influence of a substance, overcome by emotion, sleep-deprived, or just distracted. An educated driver knows not to risk their own life and the lives of others for the sake of sending a line of text to a friend. To do my own part in this education, I strive to do two things. The first is to never violate these guidelines myself, that is, to lead by example. I work hard to build time into my schedule so that I never have to multitask as I drive, and I ensure that I will always be in a good state to drive before I get behind the wheel. The second is to actively advocate for good driving habits. Many teens believe that it’s not all that big a deal, and that they can do pretty much whatever they want behind the wheel and will probably be fine. However, it is important to realize that every time one drives, they risk permanently altering the course of their lives as well as the lives of everyone else on the road. For these reasons, I start conversations on good driving habits and work to politely educate my friends on the importance of focused driving. 

Because driving is such an inherently dangerous undertaking, I do not claim that this type of education will ever bring driving deaths to 0. I do, however, deeply believe that proper driver education can be a contributing factor in substantially decreasing such deaths.