I remember the second car accident I was ever in, my mother driving, and me in the front seat. We were stuck in traffic on a busy main road in Miami, the US-1, and there was a police vehicle with its sirens blaring to our right, trying to get through the traffic as quickly as possible. My mother, although a seasoned and experienced driver, became distracted by the police vehicle, deciding whether or not she had to move aside and yield to it. In doing this, she became distracted from the road ahead of her and rear-ended the car in front of us. I, being quite small for my age, did not have the airbag at my seat deployed. My mother, though, had the airbag hit her face and consequently, her hand hit her front teeth and the skin from her right hand was torn off completely. Being only 11 or so, this bloody scene shocked me immensely and often is something I think about, even to this day, when I get in the passenger seat of a car.
I think back on this years later, writing this and proud as I finally have worked up the courage to get past my fear of the road and learn to drive; having realized that I never want to be distracted, irresponsible, or careless with my driving. With this change, I took drivers education courses to receive and apply for my learner’s permit. Taking my own past and personal experiences as a passenger with me, I learned of the importance of eliminating distractions when on the road. Much like my mother’s accident, distracted driving is very prevalent today, dangerous for all on the road, and has a high mortality rate, having claimed over 3,000 lives in 2020. As expected, we see mobile devices today as being one of the most significant distractions on the road, despite programs such as “Driving” mode on IPhones. Naturally, it is impossible to guarantee the elimination of drivers’ phones as distractors on the road, but the education of today’s teens and new drivers can be a sure way to lower the number of deaths related to driving in the future.
A teenager today is required to take some form of Driver’s Education Course before acquiring their learner’s permit, and with these educational opportunities comes the possible influence on their peers. These courses, if educational and influential in the right ways on teenagers, can lead to positive feedback loops in which the learner learns about proper ways to avoid distraction when driving, and may also pass that influence onto their peers. Consequences of these actions are healthy behaviors that could possibly save lives, seeing as teenagers are likely to listen to and take advice from their friends and peers, and then remember this advice in the future.
Although a large portion of the solution to reduce driver deaths by having teenagers spread positive behaviors depends largely on the teenager themself, there are things that drivers ed courses, educators, and even the state can do to influence how frequently this situation happens. Keeping teenagers interested in and focused on driver’s ed teaching/lessons could be a solution to the common view of the courses being seen as “tedious” and “a bother” to go through, especially to teens who simply want to get their license and its freedoms. It is important for teenagers to realize and learn that the freedom that driving entails comes with possible bad decisions, and horrible consequences that may follow, and often do. To do this, it is important to teach the steps that should be taken to ensure a safe, distraction-free drive. Many driver’s ed courses today teach and suggest drivers put their phone in a place that is unreachable, or difficult to reach, when driving i.e. the glovebox or zipped away in a bag in the back seat. Additionally, when having passengers in the car, more emphasis in the courses should be placed on asking passengers to not be rowdy or distracting to the driver, among avoiding other actions that could be just as distracting and dangerous. Changes in education and the way teens today learn can lead to important lessons and information sticking with them, and consequently with their future actions and how they act when stepping into a friend's car.
While this will never eliminate all possible dangerous distractions and interactions on the road (like with my mother and our accident) , removing mobile phone and passenger distractions can already be a big step in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving. Influencing the decisions our teens and generation of future drivers make today, through their education, can help create safe roads for others in the future.