Safe Driving Scholarship Essay

In Minnesota, there are laws in place to help prevent distracted driving. We recently have adapted a “Hands-Free” law, making it illegal to read, send texts and emails, and access the web while the vehicle is in motion or a part of traffic. This even includes during stop lights or stop signs. This is after more than 50,000 crashes were distracted driving-related from 2015- 2019, contributing to one in seven crashes in Minnesota. As well as that in 2019, there were 3,279 injuries and 32 deaths caused by distracted driving.

There are many things that we can do to further bring down the number of distracted drivers. One is having your phone useless while driving. My phone has a setting where I do not get any notifications while I am driving. This has helped me when driving as it just takes the distraction of my phone ringing in my pocket or getting a vibration whenever I get a notification or text message. I think that more phone companies and brands should have this feature available on their phones, and on top of that, they should make it already programmed into the device. It should not be a feature that you can turn on and off at any time. I feel that this will suspend the need to be constantly checking a phone to keep up to date. The notifications and messages will be waiting for you when you reach your destination.

Another thing that can be done is to have people who have been involved in accidents involving cellular devices come into classrooms to talk about their experiences with the matter at hand. No better way to ward people away from doing something than showing them what can happen if they commit such an act. These true life stories can range from minimal to severe consequences, even including death in the most extreme cases. To hear these cases in an educational environment, it could ward more people from committing such an act.

I myself have not been in a car accident, as i have only been driving for about a year. However, I have seen and heard many different stories about driving distractedly. There are so many videos and interviews out there that are super compelling to hear, but also frightening to think about. These people put their lives on the line just to answer that text or receive that call. Such an act can ruin people’s chances for future scholarships, jobs, colleges, or worse. These can take people’s lives. It might be your own life, but it could also be the person on the receiving end of the accident. Do they deserve something like that?

I think that is the importance of teaching this stuff in an educational setting. That is the mission of making people more aware of distracted driving. That your choices can end up hurting those that do not deserve such a fate. There are many steps that we can take to reduce this number, but the question is, will they be heard?

I ran out of words to say so I am just trying to fill up my essay with more words to make me get closer to the 750 goal. It’s funny though because the FastWeb website outlines it as 500 words, but the website that I have to submit to the essay. I was already struggling to get my essay up to 500 words, but then I need to add 250 more. I hope they don’t run this through their sensors otherwiseI am going to be disqualified immediately. I’ve got about 150 words more to say so I’m going to treat this like a journal entry. My stance on driving distractedly is that it shouldn’t happen. Like, I get some times it’s going to happen, but the rates we have now are just ridiculous. People need to realize that they are being complete and utter morons by acting in this way. I see people merging all over the road, actually swerving is more of an accurate term for that way of driving. That is a clear indicator of distracted driving. About 50 more words. I just think that we need to do better as a society, and that maybe harder restrictions would be good. The law for Minnesota was a recent adoption, but I don’t know how well it has been implemented or how much affect it has had on the overall issue. I just wish that people could actually get some common sense. That’s just my two cents though.