A new perspective

Yet another day where I was searching for some entertainment for today’s extended commute. I check the traffic and see that the estimated drive time is nearly double. After swinging across my seatbelt and hitting play on my aptly named music playlist “Road Trip” I set out to get to work.

On this repetitive drive, nothing stands out, the roads have their same concrete gray color, a blend of cars that ride beside me creates a collage that no artist would claim as their own. Yet something seems to have caught dozens of drivers’ gaze.

We all know the importance of keeping our eye on the road, but curiosity is a powerful lure and we all look at a scene we have recognized before, but this one with its own nuances. A fire truck, police car, ambulance, and an overturned SUV. Our community servicemen stand talking while we, the passersby, try and fill in the gaps of this cataclysmic event.

It is hard to wrap our heads around the idea that the most mundane part of our day is also the time when we may come closest to recognizing our own mortality. Car accidents account for some of the most deaths in our nation annually. We have heard this statistic time and time again so it is ingrained in us like the fact that, “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” was ingrained in our 8th-grade biology class. Yet, the severity of this fact does not translate into behavioral changes in the average person. It is clear that education has played its role in making us aware that driver safety is paramount to our safety, but what else can be done to complement it?

As someone who has been a passenger in a couple of near-miss incidents, I have dwelled upon the alternative futures that could have played out had something more unfortunate occurred. My friend had insisted he respond to his girlfriend’s text immediately. His actions implied that his duty to appease her questions superseded his immediate role of driving us safely home. When the light a few hundred meters ahead changed from green to yellow and the car ahead of us hit the brakes my friend’s instinct to follow the same actions vanished. Had I not been there to yell “STOP!” he could have had a closer encounter with his own windshield than with the screen of this telephone.

So what can be done? We can put up more billboards, create more infomercials, and have law enforcement hand out citations to those who willingly create unsafe driving environments through the use of their phone. However, the measures we have in place are not enough to where we have nationally seen an increase in driver safety. Instead it may be time to look at solutions from the technology that causes these problems itself. If phones were required to have built-in locks to prevent use at speeds higher than 25 miles per hour I feel that many accidents could be avoided. Even if a vast majority of people abide by the rules set in place it only takes one unaware driver to cause an accident. If hand-held text messaging and phone calls were blocked at high speeds it engineers out this option to distract oneself. Of course, this would require cooperation from many phone technology companies, they have developed more innovative advancements before. However, if they can track the number of steps we take daily, or track what websites we visit with regularity, surely they can track when we are traveling in a motor vehicle and create limits on phone usage.

Would the groans and complaints from consumers increase as their access to their phones is controlled? Of course. However, this alternative far outweighs the tears and disabling effects that car accidents cause in increasing numbers every year. It is time to reverse the trend of injuries resulting from car accidents.

To complement technology advancements to improve driving amongst our peers, more can be done on the educational front. While we know the statistics appear grim surrounding injuries and fatalities with distracted driving this does not necessarily translate to emotional intelligence. What creates real behavioral change is living through one of these significant accidents. Of course, if we do not want to put anyone in true harm by learning this lesson. Instead, I think similar situations can be recreated in controlled learning environments. Perhaps students could wear protective gear and ride a bike or scooter. Next, the students could be handed their mobile devices. Rather than reading about the dangers of distracted driving, they could feel their attentiveness decline. Better to experience the consequences of distracted driving while in a non-consequential environment so they can bring their experiences to the roads.

Whether the solutions for safer driving come from advancements in technology or from the classroom it is clear that we must do more to make the most dangerous place we encounter on a regular basis safer for all.