Deaths
while driving have skyrocketed over the years. Everyone’s seen the
signs “buckle up it’s the law” or the electronic signs stating
how many deaths have been on that road. So why, with what seems like
the whole U.S. advocating for safe driving, is it still one of the
leading causes of death? The answer to that is simple. Distracted
driving. People do not understand the consequences that distracted
driving can have until they’ve been in a situation that has
directly affected them. Here’s an example, when I was a sophomore
in high school I had one of my older teammates take me to dance
practice every morning before school. To get to my school we have to
take the freeway about 10 to 15 minutes. I noticed that she was
constantly texting her boyfriend. I didn’t want to seem rude and
quite honestly I wanted to be seen as cool so I never asked her to
stop. One morning while we were getting on the freeway she looked
down for maybe two seconds to check a text. Out of nowhere a semi was
right beside us and we were almost run off the road. I will never
forget the feeling I had after that happened. It was one of the most
terrifying things that I’ve experienced. Had she not been on her
phone she would’ve seen the semi and slowed down to let him pass
before entering onto the freeway. After this experience I realized
that the possible consequences of distracted driving are very real.
So, what can we do to prevent situations like this, or much more
serious ones, from happening? Well, the answer is as simple as the
problem. The only hard part about it is the effort we have to put in.
The
solution starts with our young drivers ed. I think if
drivers-ed students understood the consequences of distracted driving
in the first place they would be more willing to take their eyes off
their cellphone and direct them towards the road. When students are
learning how to drive there needs to be a bigger emphasis on
distracted driving. I noticed with my drivers ed and many of
my classmates that this topic was briefly discussed and we never went
into depth. We were given statistics of deaths making it less
personal and because of that we never fully understood the effects of
distracted driving. When drivers ed is done right students
will pass knowing what could happen if they look down at their phone.
They will understand that their lives and others are far more
important than whatever’s going on on their phones. When drivers-ed
does it’s job and drivers still decide to check their phones is
when distracted driving really becomes an issue. To prevent this I
think there needs to be more education on the issue. This could be
watching a distracted driving safety video every time you renew your
license or putting up more daunting signs showing the lives the roads
have claimed. In the end the solution is just putting down your
phone. The text can wait. The Instagram notification will still be
there when you reach your destination. These things are so trivial
when you look at the big picture of life. They will still be there
when you drive safe, but you won’t be if you don’t pay attention
to the road.
To
be a safer driver I’ve made a goal for myself to never be on my
phone while I’m driving. To me this means to change the music,
check a text, and/or be on social media. If everyone made a goal
similar to this and followed through I guarantee there’d be less
accidents on the road. Something I can do to help my friends and
family is ask them to join me in this goal. This will help us keep
each other accountable. I believe that if everyone pledged to not be
a distracted driver we would see the number of deaths drop immensely.
This problem has one of the easiest solutions. Put down your phone.
Checking that notification is not worth your life or anyone else’s.