Drive Away Distracted Driving

The idea of driving, and the eventual invention of the car, which drastically reduced the time of travel from walking, has become both a blessing and a curse. While it does reduce travel time and it expands the limits of where a person can go, it comes with many drawbacks. That list contains such things as gas and gas prices, unexpected breakdowns or malfunctions that people have to come out of pocket for, etc. The biggest drawback, or curse, of the invention of automobiles is the deaths in which they are involved. Automobile related deaths are among the most common deaths in the world. And a lot of those deaths were either caused by alcohol, or a distracted driver.

When people think of distracted driving, they often think of phones and texting, or other pieces of technology; they would be right to think of that as the common answer. Texting while driving is the leading cause of automobile deaths caused by a distracted driver. It may not seem like much, but taking your eyes off of the road to look at a text you just got, even for just a split second, can end up taking the lives of yourself, the people in your car, or others. Believing that, “Oh it won’t take long I just have to check something,” or “I am a good multitasker, how hard could it be?”, could be the difference between life and death.

What makes distracted driving even more dangerous than people think is that it is not just texting while driving. Distracted driving can be anything from eating while driving, being tired, or having too many people in the car. Distracted driving can happen without the person even noticing, which is another reason why it is so dangerous. Something as simple as going to change the song or turn the volume up can also be considered forms of distracted driving. And while they may be simple, they can take your eyes off the road for just that split second, and everyone knows what can happen during that instant.

While I haven’t personally been affected by the acts of a distracted driver, as a newly licensed driver, I advocate for education on this cause and I empathize with those who have been personally affected. There have been many calls for change, and while there hasn’t been an effective resolution, change is on the way, as gradual as it may be. In my personal opinion, there is a lot more that the government can do to minimize distracted drivers, however the problem will never be completely solved. People are going to look at their phones, eat, and do other things that aren’t safe to do while driving, and there is no way to completely stop them. However, raising awareness to the cause, and even going as far as to use scare tactics in order to get the point across is the least the government can do to try to combat this major issue. They have used the same tactics to try to combat not using a seatbelt and drunk driving. They even used the tactics to combat texting and driving, but not distracted driving as a whole. I also feel like being too extreme or too hard with the law regarding distracted driving will not be good either. First of all, it most likely isn’t going to work completely, just based on how many people are distracted while driving. Secondly, it will most likely be taken way too far, which means police cracking down on every little instance of distracted driving. This will become a bad thing because instead of looking for other major problems, someone drinking a coffee on their way to work will be the cause of a traffic stop.

While distracted driving occurs over all age ranges and groups, the most common age group for distracted drivers is teenagers and young adults who haven’t had their licenses for very long. That age group will be the hardest to reach because teenagers, especially (myself included), sometimes believe that they are the best at something and will not be told otherwise. This includes showing off when not necessary or when they have no idea what they are doing. This mentality can translate to anything, and in this case, it translates to distracted driving. In my opinion, adults have a hard time reaching teenagers, because even though they were teenagers themselves, it was some time ago and times have changed. I think it would be best if teenagers who have been personally affected by the acts of a distracted driver, especially if the driver was a teenager, would come into schools and speak about what they went through. It could be what they went through physically by being in the car during the accident, mentally by how the aftermath of their or a loved ones accident affected them, or emotionally by how they felt during or after. I feel like that would connect more with teenagers because it is someone their age who has had their life and the lives of their loved ones forever altered by the actions of a distracted driver. It could really put into perspective that things like this can happen to anyone, no matter how young or old someone is. I remember when we had guest speakers, no matter the subject, the ones that always stood out to me were the ones that were near my age. I felt a stronger connection to them because of the age similarity. It proves that whatever happened to them can happen to any one of us, and I feel like most people around my age feel the same way. Putting this on a grander scale, the government needs to have more people from my generation speaking out against issues such as distracted drivers, because we give a different view than the previous generations. Previous generations are stuck in their own minds, lacking a fresh perspective. However, people need to realize that because a new generation (my generation) is going to lead this country one day in the near future, that our new, fresh ideas need to have that light shone on them. This is where impactful change can begin.