The importance of driver education in reducing the number of crashes and fatalities each year cannot be overstated.  Classroom learning and driving practice with instructors or parents provides a necessary foundation for new drivers.  This foundation teaches them about traffic rules and safe vehicle operation.  New drivers are also educated by watching their parents, friends, and other drivers behind the wheel.  In fact, I believe that one of the most important factors in driver education is learning from the example set by others. 

While most drivers obey traffic laws and are responsible with their driving privileges, we have all witnessed drivers behind the wheel of a moving car dancing and singing, waving their hands at a passenger, texting on their phone, or even applying mascara!  Unfortunately, these distracted drivers are also involved in driver education!  They are inadvertently normalizing distracted driving in a way that perpetuates the behavior in our society and contributes to the idea that driving a car can be multi-tasked.  Real world distracted driving examples are plentiful and distort the truth of what responsible and safe driving entails.  

I don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of the pervasive problem of distracted driving that contribute to so many fatalities every year but I see 3 potential areas for major improvement: additional restrictions on the number of passengers for new drivers, normalizing the use of phone features that silence or auto-reply to incoming calls or messages, and an increase in law enforcement involvement with distracted driving instances.  These 3 items could really go a long way in changing behaviors that contribute to distracted driving.

Though they vary by state, there are currently laws that prohibit the number of passengers allowed in a vehicle driven by an inexperienced driver.  I was involved in an accident as a passenger driven by a high school friend of mine.  There were 3 of us in the car and we struck another car while merging onto a highway.  Luckily no one was hurt in either vehicle, but I think having 2 chatty passengers in the car was a distraction to my friend who was driving.  It is my belief that the crash could have been avoided if he had a few more months of solo or supervised driving before merging onto highways while talking with passengers.  This potential solution will probably not be a popular one with new drivers, but I think it will save lives by allowing for more focused driving practice on the part of new drivers.

Another potential solution to distracted driving is to eliminate the temptation to interact with a phone while driving.  We all know that texting while driving is bad but even that understanding isn’t enough to deter drivers from glancing at texts, answering calls, or using the phone to adjust navigation details.  Most phones offer features such as “Do Not Disturb” that can be activated prior to driving to eliminate calls, text, or notifications.  Some of these features are so simple to use since they will automatically activate when motion greater than a specified speed is detected.  There are also a vast assortment of apps that are available and can send auto-reply texts.  I believe that encouragement from parents, schools, and peers can go a long way towards increasing the use of these features and apps by drivers.  Public service announcements and ad campaigns would be ideal as well.  No one wants to miss important communications, but a societal initiative aimed at reducing crashes as the result of phone use by employing these new technologies would help establish a new safer standard for drivers.

Lastly, additional attention from law enforcement aimed at distracted driving would provide an important deterrent for drivers that engage in multitasking while behind the wheel.  For many people, being pulled over by an officer is enough to cause them to change the behavior that resulted in the traffic stop.  Sometimes, it’s enough to hear the story from a friend that was stopped.  My mother told me that the mandatory North Carolina seat belt law was enacted when she had been driving for one year at the age of 17 back in the 1990s.  She told me that many people didn’t take the new law seriously until warning tickets and/or actual tickets started being issued to non-compliant drivers.  In my mother’s case, she wasn’t stopped by an officer for not wearing her seat belt, but one day a highway patrolman pulled up beside her at a stop light, got her attention, and motioned for her to put on her seat belt.  That encounter was enough for my mother who was only 17 at the time to make buckling up a habit from then on.  Ultimately, people need to be responsible for their own good driving habits, but I believe that law enforcement could assist with ensuring that people become more mindful when it comes to distracted driving - whatever the reason.

Driving is a privilege and can be very enjoyable as well.  Good driving habits learned by classroom education and supervised driving provide drivers with a solid foundation, but all too often substandard driving behaviors are presented as normal and acceptable.  Given our societal preoccupation with fast, easy, and constant communication and information, distracted driving is a big problem.  I do hope that solutions involving restrictions on passengers for new drivers, use of new cell phone technologies, and engagement with law enforcement can be utilized to help us all stay focused while driving so we can reach our destinations safely.



Page 2 of 2