Smarter Drivers and Safer Roads

Smarter Drivers and Safer Roads

One moment is all it takes: one moment to take a look at a notification, one moment to take a picture on a social media feed, one moment to take your eyes off the road, one moment to take another life. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in teenagers and many of these crashes may be attributed to distracted driving. Although it may not seem to be a life-altering decision in that second to read a short text from a friend or to check up on a social media post while on the road, the effect that this distraction can have on the driver and those around them is often disastrous. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to ensure that new drivers are taught to uphold safe driving habits to keep both themselves and other drivers safe. By means of educating themselves on the dangers of distracted driving and implementing defensive driving habits, teenagers may cultivate a conscious practice of staying safe while on the roads.

The first step towards reducing distracted driving in teenagers is to educate them on the adverse effects of it. Although they may not admit it and may not even be aware of it, many teens who text and drive have the attitude that they are invincible. The testimonials from their drivers ed class and the stories on the news often seem distant, far detached from their own immediate trips around their city. Teaching that these examples are not uncommon and can happen to anyone can help disprove a teenager’s feeling of invincibility. Instead of allowing careless habits to exist, they may be more open and even motivated to make changes for their safety. Of course, fear is not the goal of this type of education. Teaching about the dangers of distracted driving should not scare new drivers or dissuade them from driving altogether but rather it ought to instill in them a healthy sense of caution and awareness on the road. In my own experience, the videos and examples from my drivers safety course serve to remind me to drive defensively and to never put myself in a situation where I might want to use a distraction like a phone when operating a car.  Measures taken to educate teens on the hazards of phone usage and other forms of distraction while driving are the first step toward reducing dangerous driving habits in teenagers.

Next, teenagers must integrate safe driving habits into their daily routines. Once education has made a teen motivated to take car safety seriously, they will now be willing to act on this motivation. However, it is one thing to learn about distractions on the road and to have good intentions of limiting these distractions but it is quite another thing to actually put safe habits into action. With a bit of will-power and thinking ahead though, anyone can begin to practice safe driving habits. One way to do this is to ensure that one’s phone cannot be used on the trip at all. This may be done by placing the device in the back seat in a spot where it is out of arm’s reach to the driver. Turning the phone off is another way to make it less accessible when driving. These methods get rid of the temptation to use a mobile device when operating a car so that a driver cannot easily look at it on the road or at a stop light simply out of boredom or habit. Some teenagers still believe that they must access their phones while driving for reasons such as responding to a text so that a friend does not think they are ignoring them or even for practical causes like needing directions, yet even these situations may be solved without distractions. One program is particularly helpful in the case of the former example. It sends an automated response to anyone who may text the driver while they are on the road, notifying them that the person they are trying to reach is driving and therefore unable to respond to them right away. This means that a teenager may drive with the peace of mind that none of their friends or family will be offended that they do not immediately respond. If directions are needed for the trip, the best plan to minimize distractions would be to study and memorize the directions beforehand so as to not have to use one’s phone at all. However, if the destination is in an unfamiliar area or the instructions to get there are too complicated to be remembered then the audio function in many phones is a helpful feature to take advantage of. With this feature, the directions may be read out loud so that the driver will not have to look at their screen. To further minimize the impulse to check for notifications, the phone can be placed out of reach in a place like the opposite car door and the volume may be turned up so that the driver can safely find their destination. All of these methods help to make sure that a teenage driver will not use distractions while driving, even if they are tempted to do so.

Through both education and safe driving habits, teenagers can put a halt to the dangerous driving that is so rampant in teens and instead drive carefully and responsibly. One moment may be all it takes for a distraction to cause another car accident but these simple habits are all it takes to avoid such a disaster. If teenagers learn about dangerous driving and implement these concrete ways to drive responsibly then we can look forward to a future of smarter drivers and safer roads.