Precious Cargo

Whenever I get in the car with one of my friends, my mom comes out in the driveway and reminds them that I am “precious cargo.” We laugh at her, but she is on to something by repeating this to us. According to an eight-year study published by the University of Nebraska in 2015, teen drivers significantly reduced their number of crashes and traffic violations when they completed a driver’s education course. Without formal driver’s education, young drivers are 75% more likely to get a ticket and 24% more likely to have a fatal or injury accident.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that only 32 states currently require driver’s ed in order to obtain a license, but it’s important for states to invest in these programs to keep citizens safe. Similarly, insurance companies should consistently offer discounts to customers who complete these courses.

Luckily, I have never seen anyone drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but sometimes I experience people irresponsibly driving distracted. I have learned that there are three types of distraction: cognitive, visual, and manual. I remember my mom talking about the necessity to pay careful attention, telling me about several times her commute would come to an end and she wouldn’t really remember driving from the house to her job. Scary! For me, driving is very “in the moment.” I rarely daydream or space out so cognitive distraction isn’t much of a problem. Visual distraction is more difficult to combat because I’ll see an interesting sign or a friend walking down a sidewalk. Bringing focus back to operating the car is important then. Unfortunately, I have seen people—friends and family—looking at their phones while they’re driving, which can be the most distracting. To be safe, I never check messages; instead, I concentrate on the road as everyone with a driving privilege should.

Organizations like End Distracted Driving are admirably doing work similar to what MADD did years ago to curb driving under the influence. Tougher laws against texting and driving can help save lives and make roads less dangerous. I belong to AAA, and they report that “over 84% of drivers recognize the danger from cell phone distractions and find it ‘unacceptable’ but 36% of them admit to reading or sending texts or emails in the previous month.” This hypocrisy is a big problem, and whenever I see people reach for their phones when I’m in the car, I try to combat that manual distraction by asking, “Can I check something for you? Can I send a text to someone for you? Do you want me to plug an address into GPS for you?” That way, without being annoying, I am letting them know that they shouldn’t be interacting with their device.

Driver distraction is responsible for more than 58% of teen crashes, and according to the CDC, drivers 15-19 involved in a crash where death occurred were more likely to be distracted than drivers over 20. The Insurance Industry for Highway Safety reports that the fatal crash rate for teens is three times greater than for older drivers.These awful statistics are likely because teens are inexperienced and uninformed about the consequences, so anything we can do to teach students in official driving classes, give incentives for good driving, and punish offenders will help reduce the number of automobile fatalities in our country.

The effectiveness of driver’s education classes and strong safety laws is clear. Besides the studies conducted, anecdotally, I know I felt more confident behind the wheel when I had finished my mandatory study, passed the exam with a 92%, and spent six hours driving with a certified instructor. That earned me a permit to drive “supervised,” meaning an adult at least 21 years of age and who possesses a valid NJ driver’s license and at least three years’ driving experience had to be in the passenger seat. Only family is allowed in the car during that time, and even if a cell phone is “hands-free,” I could not use it. After six months of that, I took and passed my road test, which earned me a probationary license at age seventeen. I’ll practice unsupervised driving for a year, at which time I can upgrade my probationary license to a basic one.

Honestly, these restrictions do not frustrate me. Rather, I am proud that my state has stringent requirements, because it helps me feel safer knowing that my fellow drivers understand the rules. We are all precious cargo, and we need to work to reduce the number of injuries and deaths on the road.