Name: Jenna Goss
From: Macomb, MI
Votes: 33
Chelsey and
Paige were driving home from school, talking and laughing about the
events of the day. Like some kids, they are looking down at their
phones texting and snapping selfies and pictures of their friends in
the car driving next to them. It is a cute boy named Marco, Paige has
had a crush on him since middle school but has been too shy to make
the first “move’. Their attention moves back and forth from the
road to him, back and forth as their focus becomes more on the boy
then on the road. It is a shame that this is occurring , it seems to
happen more and more often with new drivers, but in this case their
mistake becomes tragic. What they didn’t notice was that the
traffic light in front of them had changed to red and the gravel
truck in front of them had stopped. Fortunately, they were wearing
their seatbelts and that may have saved their lives as they hit the
back end of it. My father is a Firefighter and tells me of instances
such as this and how common they have become not just with new
teenaged drivers but even with adults. The need for Driver’s
Education is so extremely important for not only the basics of
driving, but it should be constantly updated on the driving patterns
of society, such as not using social media and texting while driving.
Many automakers have begun to include devices with their vehicles
that allow for hands free communication and such, but that in my mind
has only made the problem worse because of the sense of false
protection it gives. In essence, the driver still is looking down at
these touch screens to make selections to hear messages or read them
upon these screens. The bottom-line in my mind is that it is not the
automakers that need to do something, but the phone makers need to
limit access to these features while the vehicle is in motion. I hate
to suggest this, but society as a whole need to be protected from
itself.
I have never been in
a bad car accident, just minor fender benders, but even in those
instances they were caused by me and my friends goofing around and
not paying attention to our surroundings and backing into someone. My
friend’s group and I have now tried to curb this behavior, knowing
that we are not playing a game and that there is no reset button to
start all over.
I believe that to
change societies thought pattern on distractive driving it needs to
start at day one of new student’s drivers ed classes,
yes, knowing the ABC’s of safe driving are important but also
learning the consequences of bad choices while driving needs to be
addressed as well. My state has penalties for distracted driving, but
I believe that the consequences for these offenses needs to be
increased to get the point across.
