Pizza Boy

In the 1994 comedy film Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carry’s character, Lloyd tells his love interest that you are statistically more likely to die in an accident going to the airport than in the plane you board. And this is true! In 2022, there were only 39 plane crashes (IATA, 2023). In contrast, car accidents happen everywhere and everyday in the United States. For the state of Arizona – where I reside – there were 121,345 motor vehicle accidents in 2021, with 1,063 of them being fatal (ADOT, 2022). Although the statistics don’t tell us the exact number that were caused by distracted driving behavior, there is no doubt that these risky habits behind the wheel played a huge part in these accidents. I have never been in a car accident, and I consider myself quite the responsible and safe driver. However, this does not mean that I have perfect driving habits. On the contrary, there are indeed some nasty habits that I have when I drive that I know are distracting.

Currently, I deliver pizzas for Grandma Tony’s Pizza and Wings. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a fine enough way to help me get through nursing school. My shifts usually start during the peak traffic hours (in the afternoon around 4:00 PM), so it is imperative that I stay extra vigilant to avoid any accidents. However, a major aspect of the job is using the GPS on my phone to navigate to customers’ homes. And sadly, I do find myself more often than not glancing down at the phone to make sure I turn onto the correct street. Yes, the GPS is super important for my job, but I do feel there are safer ways I can be utilizing it.

The first correction I will make in my GPS habits is to make sure I look at the route closely before I leave the pizza kitchen. This will give me a pretty good idea where I need to go – this way I can cut down the number of times I look down at the map while I am driving. The second step I will take for safer GPS use is to not play music on my phone while I’m also trying to listen to the GPS navigator on my phone. It sounds like a no brainer, but I need to listen to my Grateful Dead jams while I drive! However, I will put an end to this habit for the sake of safety. The final step that I will take to ensure a safer driving experience is to buy one of those wonderful phone holder gadgets to stick on my dashboard. As it stands now, I have to keep the phone down in my center console, which requires me to move my head down to look at the GPS map. But if I had one of those fancy phone holders, I would simply need to slightly move my eyes as I drive to see the map. Yes, this is an improvement I need to make to my driving habits, but I am not the only one who is guilty of irresponsible driving activities.

Sadly, I have seen my friends and family drive irresponsible. On numerous occasions, I have had to tell my dad to stop texting and driving. It doesn’t happen as often these days, but I recall a few years ago he would text and drive quite often, and I would feel incredibly unsafe if I was in the car with him. I feel like driver education can play an important role here because showing someone the statistics of accidents caused by texting and other distracted behaviors can really put things into perspective. And to reduce the number of deaths related to driving, education plays a huge role. I also feel that including more education about distracted driving in the curriculum of obtaining a driver’s license will help greatly. When I got my driver’s license, there was a heavy emphasis on reading signage, right-of-ways, and how to drive in the rain, but there was virtually nothing regarding distracted driving behaviors. I will argue that knowing how to reduce driving distractions is equally important as knowing what the signs on the road mean.

Sometimes when driving and seeing all of the car crashes on the road, it may seem that these accidents are unavoidable. Driving is a heavy responsibility and sometimes quite stressful. Nobody can be perfect behind the wheel, but I do feel that the changes that I will make to my driving habits will result in me being a much safer delivery driver.

References

ADOT. (2022). 2021 Crash Facts – ADOT. 2021 ADOT Crash Facts.

https://azdot.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/2021-crash-facts.pdf

IATA. (2023, March 7). IATA Releases 2022 Airline Safety Performance. IATA.

https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2023-releases/2023-03-07-01/