Distracted Driving

Distracted Driving

Cherishann Diamzon

As a teenager and college student distracted driving is not an unfamiliar situation. Especially now with cellphones that can play movies, music, and video chat. I’m guilty of doing all of the above when I’m behind the wheel. I started driving at the age of 16, with my parents’ old minivan. Not only did I drive distracted changing music on my cellphone, I drove a big metal box on wheels which was a danger to anyone on the street. Now I have a Civic which is easier to manage my cellphone that is plugged in with CarPlay, convenient and what would be the root to a problem.

One night I was driving alone from Riverside to San Diego. I wanted company, so while I was driving, I went on my phone and got onto the Netflix app. I started playing movies ad raised the volume to keep me company. I decided to bring the brightness to the highest level so I could see better, emanating a distracting glow on the left side of my face. On this road trip, the roads were empty, and I was driving at least 10 mph over the speed limit. Halfway to my destination I stopped by In-n-out and grabbed a late-night bite. Again, I was in a hurry, so I did not choose to park my car and eat. I picked up my food and got back on the freeway in a blink of an eye. With one hand on the wheel and one clenching my burger, my eyes moved back and forth towards the road and my phone screen. For about ten miles I was cruising along the freeway without a worry in sight. Until the CarPlay started acting up and the monitor in my Civic started going through different features rapidly. Now my eyes were on the road, my phone, and the monitor flashing lights. I started to worry, thinking I should maybe pull over. But I have never pulled over when on the freeway and I was too afraid to try it that night. I tossed my burger to the passenger seat and tried figuring out what was wrong with the monitor. From the corner of my eye I noticed on my side mirror a black car tailing me from when my monitor started going berserk. I didn’t think much of it until that car was driving at the same speed as me and moved to the next lane. My body stiffened as the car stayed parallel to me, while I was still trying to fix the monitor. Then, a bright white light was pointed at my car. Red and blue lights flashing and the sound every driver fears, police sirens. At that moment, my heart fell out of my chest, I went on auto pilot. The adrenaline boosted my instincts to quickly turn off my cellphone and magically fix the monitor. The police car pursued my vehicle for 30 seconds and miraculously turned off their sirens and took the next exit. I don’t know why or what brought that cop to show me mercy, but that night taught me that driving distracted is not only dangerous, but incredibly ignorant.