Oftentimes, people don’t pay attention to important issues until they are personally impacted. When I was eight years old I didn’t care about wearing a helmet on my bike, until I fell off. After the mistake of not wearing a helmet on my bike, I never forget to put it on after that day. We tend to be ignorant towards situations until we feel we may be at risk. Growing up I didn’t think much about distracted driving. I wasn’t as aware of the issue that was at hand until I was personally affected. Almost every person in my family has personally experienced a car accident. From smaller accidents like being rear ended, to cars getting hit and flipped over at a busy intersection. A lot of the time, we may not be distracted drivers but we should be aware of others who are around us and not paying attention to the road.
Glancing at a text message on your phone is never gonna be worth losing a family member, a friend, or putting other drivers at risk. Just two weeks ago I was in the car with my mom and my two younger brothers. We were driving on the highway, on the way to get lunch with our friends. From the left lane a woman with a baby in the back seat of the car,swerved into my mom and I, who were in the far right lane. Our car was pushed off the road. The damage was minimal but I can’t help but imagine what could have happened. If my mom wasn’t paying attention and didn’t have control over the car, we could have flipped over or hit another car. For a driver with a baby in the car to willingly swerve over two lanes and hit a car with two other children, leaves me with many questions. What could have caused the driver to be distracted? How many other people could have been at risk? And how can we stop distracted driving?
Anything taking your attention away from driving can be a distraction. There are visual, manual, and cognitive distractions. Taking your eyes off the road, taking your hands off the wheel, and not thinking about driving and the cars around you are risks. Visual distractions would be looking at your phone or not on the road. Manual distractions would be taking your hands off the wheel to grab food or pick up something from your back seat. Cognitive distractions would be spacing out or daydreaming while driving. Multitasking while driving can be full of risks and putting surrounding drivers in danger. Tasks you may need to take part in while you're driving need to be taken care of before you start driving. Things such as adjusting your mirrors and setting up your directions can take place beforehand.
My dad often reminds me of his childhood best friend that passed away in a distracted driving car accident. A car ran a red light and came into an intersection in a small town and hit him. His friend was one month away from getting married and meeting his first child. All of it was taken away in a matter of seconds because another driver wasn’t looking at the road. It’s not just one person who is impacted. It’s an entire community. Family members, friends, co-workers and many other people are deeply affected and their lives are changed.
I think every state needs to begin implementing laws that ban distracted driving and enacting consequences to distracted driving. If awareness is brought through these laws more teen drivers will take the situation seriously. I also think that instead of looking at technology as a negative thing, we can use it to prevent distracted driving. Vehicle services can start taking distracted driving into consideration and create devices that will alert the drivers of their direction and important notifications out loud rather than lighting up a device screen and taking drivers attention away from the road. I believe if all teenagers hear real life stories of people who have suffered from distracted driving they will drive with more consciousness. If any person is pulled over or caught distracted driving I think it would be necessary that they take a class to learn about the importance of being aware when driving. I think slight consequences can prevent large life taking consequences, such as killing someone in a distracted driving accident. I think people often forget that they are not the only people they need to worry or be aware off. I think being well aware of the impact we can have on other people’s lives is beyond important. We can’t just prioritize our own safety.
When driving there are so many things to be aware of. Bikers, runners, signs, and speed limits and all of those things can’t be managed if you are texting your friends instead of looking at the road. There is very little room for ‘mistakes’ when you are driving a car. A study in 2019 shows that 1 in 5 lives taken in a distracted driving accident were people not even in vehicles. They were people walking, biking, or just outside of a car. Speed bumps, crosswalks, and speed limits always need to be taken into consideration.
People tend to use activities or outside conditions as an excuse to not pay attention while driving. Things like running late and having places to be, need to be taken into consideration before going out and driving. Teens and any drivers need to know that they cannot put other drivers at risk because they are running late. It’s better to be late than not making it to your destination at all. Just like bad habits can be built, teens need to build good habits related to driving. If parents are constantly distracted driving especially with kids in the car, their teens will not see a problem with distracted driving. Teens and all drivers in general need to create the habit and normalize giving full attention to the road and the car when driving a vehicle.