Is
It Worth It?
We
hear stories all the time. A pregnant mother was killed by a drunk
driver. A distracted driver was texting and killed a elderly woman
crossing the road. A teen was driving too fast late at night and
killed everyone in the car, including themselves. Many times we think
that it could never happen to us, but we’re wrong. Reckless driving
is one of the leading causes of deaths in the United States. Driver
education is extremely important in reducing the number of deaths
resulting from driving. It has become increasingly better, and as a
result, the number of deaths per year has gone down. But there still
is more to be done.

The
number one thing that we can do as drivers is to put our phones down
and be aware of your surroundings. If you have to put your phone
inside the car console or put it in the backseat, do it. My parents
have had multiple counts of being rear-ended, and I experienced one
of them. I am lucky to say that no one has been seriously injured by
any of them, but all of them were due to the fact that the driver
behind them wasn’t paying attention. It is crazy the amount of
times that I look over during my 30 minute drive home from school to
see the person next to me, phone in their hand, glancing up every
couple of seconds. It makes me very frustrated to see that whatever
is on those driver’s phones can’t wait 10, 20, or 30 minutes. The
hard truth is that they can.

In
the past couple of years, I have seen many companies run campaigns
and ads to encourage people to stay alert and off of their phones.
The first one that I think of is the It
Can Wait campaign
by AT&T. I saw this before I even started driving, and it has
stuck with me. Yes, that group chat with your friends might be super
interesting, but is it worth risking the lives of others to see it
while driving? Many phones, including mine, have a do not disturb
feature that blocks notifications while driving. If you are tempted
to give in to the ringing coming from your cup holder, just think, is
it worth it?