Tackling Distracted Driving at its Core

Tackling Distracted Driving at its Core

By Abdel J. Rivera Laracuente

You never expect to be involved in an accident related to texting and driving until you are. One afternoon I was waiting for my parents outside my school when my best friend’s mom picks me up instead, to take me to where my mom and brother had just been crashed into. A reckless driver, whom I studied with, had just crashed into my family on her way back from school. She rammed into the back of my mom’s SUV and totaled her car. Miraculously, no one got hurt. The reason that caused the accident was that the reckless driver was on the phone before she had the chance to come to her senses prior to crashing into the rear of my mom’s car. Incidents like these can be prevented if the proper measures are taken before handing someone a driver’s license.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there were 3,166 people killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2017 alone. Laws have been created to enforce distraction free driving, but these address the problem indirectly, since they are just the consequence of doing such actions. Distracted driving should be tackled before it happens to help the driver develop safe driving habits. This is done by educating beginner drivers about the startling statistics of distracted driving before they get on the road. In addition, providing constructive feedback when driving and restricting phone access during driving would further minimize the amount of road accidents in the future.

Driving students should be enrolled in classes that specifically target distracted driving to instill safe driving habits. These classes can orient students about the importance of leaving their phones out of the equation when in the driver’s seat. Tips and techniques should also be provided in such course to minimize the urge of the driver to engage in phone usage. For instance, fomenting the use of tools like driving mode on the phone can help keep students’ eyes on the road instead of on their phone. Beginner drivers should also be encouraged to start driving early in their lives, since graduated driver licensing allows for direct one on one coaching while driving before driving alone, effectively allowing beginners to gain experience behind the wheel. Constructive feedback from whoever accompanies them while driving will benefit the student by providing them with knowledge from an experienced driver.

Implementing these distracted driving classes as part of high school curriculums today can be an asset when preventing accidents like the one my family went through. Although this does not guarantee that people who are already out on the street stop driving and using their phones at the same time, it does assure that future generations will be better equipped when they get behind the wheel. Using the knowledge of the problem of distracted driving in our favor can be our best bet to eradicate it in its entirety.