Distracted Drving

What could be worse than losing your life to the recklessness of another human? What is more traumatizing than hearing your child—who could have been in school sports, active in the community or in college with a bright future—will be hospitalized for months due to another driver? Perhaps being the mother of the driver responsible is worse, but how could anyone even compare two devastating situations?

There are around 2.5 million car crashes that occur by distracted driving each year—that’s over 6,800 car crashes each day! Distracted driving could come in many forms, from easy-to-blame drivers such as drinking and driving to easier-to-forgive drivers such as a mom helping her toddler. The issue of distracted driving will only increase in occurrence as technology increases and as the world becomes more dependent on phones.

I attend a residential high school four hours away from my home. Whenever I need to go home, which is not often, I have to drive through the thick, busy, and congested capital of my state: Little Rock. The traffic is tight for miles on end, and every car driving through is rushing to get out of the city. On multiple occasions in my driving home or to school, I have dealt with cars flipped in ditches, accidents in opposing lanes, and stopped traffic to clear the road. Although my first thoughts are of aggravation to the inconvenience, my mind then wonders who caused that crash, and why? Who else got hurt by it? Who is next?

I strongly encourage and advocate for drivers to remain unoccupied by other things while they are driving—a message that should be universal. When riding in a vehicle with my brother, I have noticed that he has a bad habit of texting while driving. In his mind, this practice has yet to hurt him, he is in complete control of the car, and he can focus on two tasks at once—especially if one task is something as second nature as driving. Every time I ride with him, I point out that he is texting and driving, intentionally and dramatically trying to make him feel as guilty as I can. He, like most comfortable drivers, sees texting and driving as a convenience rather than as a danger.

I am a musician, and as Louis Armstrong once said, “Music is life itself.” Any style, any genre, any instrument, any beat: music’s effect speaks to a soul desperate for communication. Sound is a beast that needs to be tamed, and I tame her. Music is a form of communication, and I am fluent in her language. I live in song: every step is a dance, and every tap is a metronome. Any object can be an instrument, and any voice can sing. Music protects me, offering a shoulder to cry on, a partner to celebrate with, and a boost to finish the race. Music notes swirl around me in a vortex, angry when I try muting them. Every thought, belief, and message I want to express translates to song, and I speak through music. The sound possesses me until my feet step to the beat and my hips sway to the sound.

As a musician, I chose to express my passion against distracted driving through song. One song that I wrote, called “Out the Bar”, sheds a light of shame on drinking and driving. The song is about a woman who died in a car crash, hitting a drunk driver who came out unscathed. The song puts blame on the drunk man who chose to drive despite his intoxication, who plays the role of “you” in the lyrics, giving the listener a feeling if responsibility and shame. In this way, I try to express the gravity of distracted driving and the consequences that could occur.

My generation loves listening to music—especially while driving. In a more subtle way, distracted driving comes in the form of flipping through or skipping songs while driving. I admit that I fall victim to this practice, and I have caught myself altering my song queue while driving. In this practice, teenagers stepping into adulthood are driving unattentively as a developing habit, which could become more disastrous as the habit grows in the future. Luckily, modern technology has crafted Siri, who could be used to skip songs, send texts, or manage any phone needs for the driver. A driver should not pay any attention to their phone while driving whatsoever, but, in reality, very few drivers adhere to this. Siri represents a technological solution to texting and driving, and other areas of distracted driving need to be amended with similar ideas.

Drinking and driving would be difficult to amend further than the laws and regulations that have already been implemented, but this issue is still prevalent. The best way to discourage intoxicated driving would be through illustrating the consequences and raising awareness through varying media. Examples of this would be making movies that discourage drinking and driving, writing songs, posting advocacy messages, and sharing real life experiences. Rather than applying a technological solution to this issue, as we did with texting and driving, the best way to mitigate the number of intoxicated drivers would be through mentally effective practices. By this, I mean we need to change the minds of those who drink and drive, convincing them that they shouldn’t be okay with this practice both while in a sober state and in an intoxicated state.

Teenagers can share messages against distracted driving, directly discouraging their peers from the habit. Teenagers are often most strongly motivated and influenced by judgement from peers, and using this control in a beneficial way, teenagers can demoralize distracted driving pointing it out. Parents should also discourage the practice of distracted driving and can do so by example. Teenagers are often affected by the beliefs of their parents, and most teenagers look to their parents as role models. In this sense, parents have the responsibility to teach against distracted driving.