It's not funny

Malick Sinyan
Stand Up To Distracted Driving Scholarship
10/10/26

Everyone else in the car was laughing, but I, scared for my life, wanted to get out. My friend was driving recklessly through a neighborhood, swerving in between lanes and speeding. What seemed funny to everyone else genuinely scared me. I kept thinking about a car pulling out unexpectedly in front of us or a deer running into the road. Being in a neighborhood was not more safe than being on the highway. I was sitting in a car with no control over my life. Eventually, I yelled for the driver to stop so I could get out safely. I got out and took an Uber home.

I would rather seem lame to others than stay in a situation where I fear for my life. That sounds easy to say now, but when everyone around you is laughing, speaking up means being the person who interrupts the fun. In that moment, I realized how much I valued my life and how little it mattered whether everyone agreed with me. Stories I had heard about dangerous driving came back to me. They were part of why I could not treat what was happening as just a funny joke.

That experience involved reckless driving, but it also made me think honestly about the ways I had taken my own attention off the road. When I started driving at sixteen, I used to look at messages and change music on my phone for long periods of time. I knew texting while driving was dangerous, yet I still made exceptions for myself. Looking at a message felt quick. Finding another song felt normal. Sometimes I would look up at the right moment and brake before I hit the car stopped right in front of me.

As I have matured, I have stopped doing those things while driving. I do not want to describe myself as someone who has always made perfect choices because I have not. That is part of why this issue matters to me. I recognize my old habits in people my age who still reach for their phones behind the wheel. I understand wanting to multitask, but I also understand that getting away with something before does not mean it is safe and that there won’t be consequences in the future for it. A close call should be enough reason to change before there is an accident.

Being a passenger that night helped me see that responsibility differently. When I was scared in my friend's car, I wanted him to take my safety seriously. Anyone riding with me deserves the same. Other drivers and people walking through a neighborhood deserve it too since their life is also being put at risk. Nobody has any say in whether I check a message, but they could still live with the consequences. I have plans for my life, especially as a filmmaker, and I know the people around me have plans just as important to them.

Through my filmmaking business, Intent Cinema, I want to create advertisements about car safety that young people would actually watch. My idea starts with a group of friends having fun in a car. Their conversation would sound familiar, with the kind of jokes people make when they are comfortable together. Then the driver swerves as a joke. The passengers laugh, until another car appears and the situation becomes serious. I want to show how something treated as entertainment can become a collision before anyone has time to take the joke back.

The video would also have another version at the end that shows a passenger asking the driver to stop and being taken seriously. That part matters because a viewer should leave knowing what they can do differently. I would stage the driving scenes safely through acting and editing. I would want the opening to be entertaining without making the dangerous behavior look impressive. As a filmmaker, I am interested in that change in emotion, when the audience recognizes something familiar and then realizes how easily it could go wrong.

I would share the advertisement on Instagram and YouTube, where I already share creative work. Alongside it, I would like to make shorter videos about phone distractions, including choosing music before leaving and letting messages wait until the car is safely parked. These are steps I can keep taking myself, along with setting directions before driving and putting my phone out of reach. A passenger could handle the music or directions instead of expecting the driver to do everything. Friends could also stop pressuring each other to answer immediately when they know someone is driving.

Reducing deaths on the road also means taking everyday safety decisions seriously. Drivers should follow speed limits, leave enough space to stop, and make sure everyone wears a seat belt. Planning a safe ride home instead of driving after drinking or using drugs matters too. I can help by refusing to