Name: William C Lipps
From: Katy, Texas
Votes: 0
As
children, we believe that our parents are “superheroes” behind
the wheel. We think that they will protect us from anything even if
they are distracted. As we grow older, we realize that our perception
was wildly inaccurate. In an age where cell phones are so accessible,
it makes sense why distracted driving is a huge cause of death in the
United States. But the question remains, how can we get people’s
eyes off the screen and back on the road?
To
start, I think it’s very important to remind teenagers of the
consequences from distracted driving. This is accomplished in drivers
education and I think it’s one of the many reasons why it’s very
important for teenagers to pay attention in drivers ed courses.
A few other precautions that we could take, are to make our phones
less accessible. For instance, some apps could regulate distracted
driving by locking your phone whenever it senses that you’re
driving. This is a solution that could limit the amount of accidents
caused by distracted driving.
Fortunately, myself
nor a family member has ever been involved in a car accident.
However, I have witnessed family members drive distracted. For
instance, while at stop lights my mother will pick up her phone and
start texting. This may not be that harmful, yet when the light turns
green, she often doesn’t notice, forcing me to speak up. She then
will proceed to finish up her text for the next 30 seconds while
driving down the road. Personally, I think something that I could
have done in that situation is said, “Hey Mom, let me finish that
text for you while you drive” and I could have asked her what to
type. Something that I think we could all do, is when we get into the
car, put your phone in the glove compartment, or somewhere that you
won’t be able to reach it so easily. If you need to use the map
function, get a phone mount that you can put on the air vent in your
car or stick to the windshield.
Distracted
driving is an increasingly deadly epidemic, but I think that keeping
in mind the points I’ve made here, as well as others, we can start
to finally eliminate the number of distracted drivers on the road.
