Innovative Safe Driving Essay

In today’s world young drivers have tons of distractions which can prevent them from being focused on driving. Things such as cell phones, the radio, and having more than one passenger in the car with them. This is a growing issue among teenage drivers and young adults as well, bringing awareness to this issue with the help of technology can address it.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Everyday in the U.S. 9 people are killed”. More than 1,000 are injured in car crashes that have reported an involvement of a distracted driver. Too many people have died and continue to die from preventable accidents. And unfortunately it seems like drivers under the age of 25 are the main ones who tend to send text messages and emails while they are driving, according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Drivers under the age of 20 have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes”. This is according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I too have witnessed distracted driving while with my friends. One day we were on I95 and heading to Miami, she looked down to check a message and ended up missing the exit to downtown. Thankfully no accident happened as a result of this mistake and we made it to our destination safely. I believe ending distracted driving is big task in a world that continues to have technological advances every year. Bottom line is multi tasking is a distraction and hazard. And technology use is the most common temptation.

Most tech companies who promise the ability to multitask and make life easier over empower customers to believe this is true. How many times does this technology make a notification sound on this mobile device? And how often does the owner check to see who or what the notification was. Too often the diver will automatically look down to see what the notification is opening the door to potential accidents. Teens utilize the internet everyday to utilize social media and the internet. With this being known an anti-distracting driving advertisement campaign would possibly reach millions of teens and young adults across the country. We could use the internet and technology to promote safe and proper driving.

Advertising campaigns should target teens and young adults who are mobile phone users. According to the Pew Research Center 75% of teens have access to smartphones. With this information a campaign could make personalized advertisements on social media platforms and music applications as well.

These provide non-distracting ways to promote safe driving. Also put these advertisements on television can be very helpful as well. For example, the anti- smoking advertisement campaign that The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did. they had to collect research and come up with critical information. “The Real Cost campaign was associated with preventing an estimated 348,398 U.S. youths aged 11–18 years from initiating smoking during 2014–2016”. IF they could do this with smoking then just imagine the type of impact they could reach with safe driving advertisement. With the help of both television and social media teens and young adults can’t ignore this message being pushed to them. Another possible solution that would take advantage of the numerous users of cell phones would be a free Application. This application would allow you to track your phone usage and also driving time. Like linking your cell phone and GPS network would track the trip time and the distance for potential routes, helping you use your vehicle correctly in a timely manner.

This app could establish a parental setting that could allow them to disable the child’s cell phone at any time. For example automatic turn off could be enabled while the they are driving. This a great step and easy option to take with young adults and teenagers when they are driving.

We have no way of knowing if this can lower distracted driving. But if we can keep going then who knows what the future holds.

Young adults and teens need to see the severity of their actions and that they hold heavy consequences. They should have exposure to the effects of distracted driving displayed on social media and Television. We need to push these advertisement opportunities before they find themselves in the middle of a potential accident. With time and consistency we can accomplish this. The hard work we put in today and moving forward will pay off to help an entire generation prevent potential horrific accidents. And in turn improving our nation’s safety while driving as a whole.