Distracted Driving? Nah, Defensive Driving!

Vroooooom! Gripping my seatbelt in undulated fear as my friend sped down the empty street, I yelled at him to “slow the hell down before he murders all of us!” My friend, who was busy texting his mom on the phone, forgot that his foot was on the gas pedal and had accidentally sped down the road. Thankfully, we did not get into an accident, but that experience completely altered my perspective on driving safely.

(I hate to say this, but never trust the stupidity of a teenager who just got their license.)

As the youngest and smallest of the family, I often sat in the backseat of my family’s car, never paying much attention to my father’s driving. However, as I grew older, I realized more about how dangerous driving really is and how driving defensively is a necessary skill to learn to reduce the likelihood of accidents. I feared getting behind the wheel, of having to control a 3,000-pound vehicle that could quickly kill me, my passengers, and anybody on the road without mercy.

Yet, I knew I had to overcome this obstacle. Unlike many of my friends who decided to take a quick online course in driver’s education and take the road test immediately afterward, I enrolled in my school’s 16-session Driver Education program last fall to obtain my driver’s license. There, in the span of five months, I spent twenty-four hours learning the theory of driver’s education (which is what you typically think of when driver’s education comes to mind) and another twenty-four hours in group driving lessons, getting hands-on experience in learning how to drive safely.

On the very first day of class, I learned the requirements for passing the New York State’s Driver Education classroom course:

• Perfect attendance

• A minimum passing grade of 70 on the midterm and final

• A completed written assignment on the traffic court or current events articles related to driver’s education.

As we delved deeper into the course, I learned so many things I otherwise would not have known if I had not taken it.

For instance, distracted driving is the single most significant contributing factor to traffic crashes today; plus, it is just as dangerous as impaired driving and other unsafe driving behaviors. When most people think of the causes of road accidents, they think of driving while impaired, hazardous driving conditions, and so forth—not distracted driving. However, distracted driving accounts for approximately 25% of motor vehicle crash fatalities and is reported to be responsible for more than 58% of teen crashes.

You might be thinking: but there are hands-free devices! Those are safe!

NO! They are less safe than you think they are. Even though manually, the driver is not distracted with hands-free devices, cognitively, they are distracted from driving. Like my friend who got distracted texting his mom on the phone, hands-free devices distract the driver too, which could likely cause horrendous accidents while on the road. The driver will remain distracted for 27 seconds after using one of these devices, even as they try to get back to “driving” mode.

To solve this problem, drivers should reduce distractions while driving. Everything should be set up beforehand: programming the GPS, adjusting the mirrors, eating meals, etc. Another life could be saved by limiting cell phone usage, such as not texting or emailing while driving.

While personally limiting distractions will never completely eliminate all potentially dangerous distractions and interactions on the road, it is a step toward the right direction of driving defensively and reducing the number of deaths related to driving.

This is just one aspect of the importance of taking a driver’s education course. Although many teenagers want to go straight to driving, they must understand first the consequences if they or others on the road drive irresponsibly, which they would learn through driver’s education. Not only that, but they would know the different systems and maintenance of a car, allowing them to be better drivers who are prepared for any situation. If one friend decides to drive defensively and safely, it will likely influence their other friends to drive safely, too; thus, more people would drive defensively on the road, and subsequently, more vehicle accidents would be prevented—my friends and I are a prime example of this. As I spoke to my friends about what I learned in my driver’s education class, many of my friends decided they wanted to take the course also to be better and safer drivers on the road. Collectively, we all positively influenced each other to become better drivers.

Lastly, as my driver’s ed teacher, Mr. B, wisely stated at the end of the course: “Remember, the choices you make will affect those you love and perfect strangers alike. Good luck, and drive safely.”