Stay Focused = Stay Alive.

April 11, 2017.

I started the day off great with a college visit and ended it watching my older brother, Van, get wheeled into the operating room about to undergo neurosurgery for a traumatic brain injury. He had been hit by a car driven by a distracted driver when riding his bicycle home from baseball practice. Van left the house that morning a college-recruited athlete a month away from graduating high school and ended it with a 50% chance of survival. And while he did make it through, it has come at a great cost to himself and our family over the past five-plus years. Dreams have been given up and life has changed drastically, all due to one person’s failure to focus on the road.

My brother’s accident is actually why I am applying for this scholarship. Much of his five-plus years of physical, occupational and speech therapy wasn’t covered by insurance, however, my family and I believe it was essential to getting him to where he is today. Unfortunately, the additional treatment cost the money my parents saved for our college educations, so although I’ve been working since I was 14, and will continue to do so, it will be scholarships such as this one that will allow me to complete my education with ending up with a huge burden of debt.

But back to the point…

Driver education is so important in teaching future drivers about personal responsibility, defensive driving, the rules of driving, the mechanics of operating a car and, I feel most important, reducing the number of deaths due to stressing that new drivers must not get distracted.

Although I have been driving for five years now, I still remind my friends and family about the importance of not getting me distracted while driving. The main information I share is to make sure I never multi-task when driving. Eating, hooking up my iPhone to the stereo, mapping directions, making a phone call, or especially reading a text or email – when I am in the driver’s seat, I remind myself and those with me that none of this should ever be done when driving and can easily be done before or after the trip.

This problem with distracted driving is preventable and has been addressed in the Washington, DC metro area and by my state of Maryland specifically. I will share what they are doing and some ideas of my own.

Since 2009, Maryland has banned playing with your phone while driving – whether you are texting, taking selfies, watching YouTube, etc. All drivers are prohibited from writing or sending any kind of media messages while operating a motor vehicle as all fall under the category of distracted driving. This law does not apply to texting 9-1-1 or using a global position system.

Currently in Maryland, the distracted driving fine for first-time offenders is $83. A second offense can cost $140, and a third offense is $160. There are also additional costs related to court proceedings, as well as points on your driving record. And should you injure or kill someone while you are playing with a handheld device, thanks to Jake’s Law (named after five-year-old Jake Owen who was killed by a driver who was texting and talking), you will be fined up to $5,000 and receive three years in jail. Maryland lawmakers approved a bill that increases the maximum fine for playing with a phone while driving to $500.

Over the last five years in my Maryland county alone (Montgomery), five teenagers have been killed and at least 292 teen pedestrians have been hit by cars due to the drivers playing with their phones or being otherwise distracted. In recent years, the Washing, DC metro area instituted the “Stay Alert. Stay Alive” campaign directed at both distracted drivers and pedestrians and bicyclists to try to combat the problem.

Not long ago, I was so happy to read in the Washington Post that there is a mandate under review proposing that all new cars come equipped with a Breathalyzer Interlock devise by 2024 in order to cut down on the approximately 10,000 deaths caused annually by drunk drivers.

I think a great solution for reducing the risk of distracted driving would be a similar invention to help lower the temptation to drive while distracted. I believe installing a device like the ignition interlock breathalyzer that would prevent your car from starting until you listened to/viewed the following check list could be helpful.

I would like to propose the following as a possible solution for keeping pedestrians safer:

PROPOSED DISTRACTED DRIVING DEVICE – Starts when key is put in ignition:

AUDIO:
DO NOT THINK OF DRIVING THIS CAR IF YOU:

• Have consumed alcohol;

• Are tired;

• Plan to text, play with social media or talk without a hands-free device;

• Are going to eat, drink or play with your radio.

IF YOU CAN’T BE RESPONSIBLE, DON’T DRIVE!

VIDEO:
As the check list is being read, a series of Street Smart ads similar to the following would be rotating on the screen:

While I am not sure that a specific invention or device can make someone take more personal responsibility, I do believe being acutely aware of the causes of distracted driving and paying the price for not following the rules are keys to stopping the problem.

To end on a positive note, I’d like to share that after five-plus years, Van has nearly fully recovered from his brain injury and is now attending Drexel University with me where he is majoring in medical product design and developing products whose goal is to keep people safe.

My brother, Van, and me in front of Drexel’s masc