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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) April is distracted driving awareness month. During this month the NHTSA implemented a new campaign called “put the phone away or pay” meant to pressure drivers into putting their devices away or paying a fine. However, is this enough?
In 2023, the NHTSA reported that 3,275 people died due to distracted driving and an even further 324,819 people were injured due to distracted driving related injuries. That means that in 2023 a total of 328,094 people were hurt or killed in distracted driving related injuries. This is a statistic that is very saddening but also serves as a wake up call to everyone. If you look at numbers even further the statistic gets even more frightening.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identifies the youngest age group of drivers as people who are between the ages of fifteen to twenty. This means that drivers ages fifteen to twenty make up about nine percent of total drivers, when it comes to distracted drivers they hold one of the highest percentages at Sixteen percent.
Along with people ages twenty one to twenty four they hold the highest amount of distracted drivers. This should not come as a shock to most because they are the newer generation and technology is a big part of their lives. But still, the youngest people on the road, the ones who just took drivers education are the ones most on their phones and driving distracted. But why? Well it's not because drivers ed doesn't heavily emphasize the consequences of distracted driving. In fact, I remember that there were whole lessons on distracted driving. These lessons included videos from victims, families, and even distracted drivers themselves, telling their stories and what impact distracted driving had on their life. Personally, seeing these victims tell their stories was really impactful on how I decided to drive after I got my licence. I remember there was one instance where I was in the car with my sister and she wanted to show me this tik tok she just saw. She flipped her ipad over and tried to show me the screen but i was making a turn at the same time and almost drove into the wrong lane. Luckily for us there was barely anyone else on the road with us, but that day we could have gotten into an accident. Arguably it wasn't one of my best driving moments but from that moment on i always would tell my sister to save the video for later when i was not driving to show me. I only learned and remembered how distracted driving can affect people because of my drivers ed and first hand accounts.
So then what is it? If drivers ed is going through all these precautions to make sure teens know what will happen if they drive while distracted, why do they still do it? Well there is not one clear answer why. A lot of teens like to drive with their friends in the car, whether that's to a party, or school, there is usually more than one person in the car. This can be a form of distracted driving. If a teen is in the car with other teens they might be more tempted to reach for their phone to change the music, scroll on instagram, (or in my case look at a funny tik tok) because everyone else in the car is. This can be very dangerous, it may not seem like it, however to put it in perspective the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that even if you look away from the road for five seconds driving at fifty five miles an hour that is equivalent to driving the entire length of a football field or one hundred yards with your eyes closed.
Now at this point, as a parent or adult, you may be freaking out just a little bit but, this issue can be easily solved. Teens need to try and not give into things like peer pressure to reach for their phone, or look at one from a friend, but also others in the car need to be aware of what distracted driving can lead to. As a parent you can limit the amount of people that your kids drive with, allowing them only to drive with one or two friends in the car. As a school you can ensure that all kids learn about distracted driving, what it is, what can happen, and how to prevent it. With these tools being employed by everyone (teens, parents, and schools) it can be ensured that teens are driving as safely as possible on the road. These tactics are not supposed to scare kids into never wanting to drive, but they are meant to help kids into realizing that driving can be dangerous only if you are doing it wrong. So, let's all do our part and make this next April effective by putting the phone away or paying the price.