Be the Change, Stop Distracted Driving

Distracted driving is a big issue that we all struggle with in our day-to-day lives. This can be from us with having the music too high, being in a deep conversation with other passengers in the car, or even having your phone in your lap, texting or changing the music. You may have also had interactions where other drivers were texting and driving, not looking at the road, and have seen them swerving in and out of their lane. Drivers’ education has taught me these things that you may not think about being a distraction, but they very much can. Taking in this knowledge and knowing the repercussion that may happen from even just looking at your phone for a split second can change your life and the other drivers on the road’s life. Which is why attending drivers’ education, and taking in the knowledge that way you know what causes distracted driving and steps to avoid distracted driving. Distracted driving can cause death and serious injuries and you do not want to be the person suffering from this or the one to cause it, so why drive being distracted.

You may be wondering what I can do to reduce my take in distracted driving, and luckily for you I have many steps to lay out for this. The first step is to eliminate your phone from being used while you are driving. Many phones now a days has a setting to set on your phone for when you’re driving. This setting will not allow you to receive texts until your car is shut off and automatically puts it on when you have entered the car. Or when you’re driving with other passengers allow them to have your phone, for music changes, potential texts and calls. When you have other passengers in the car, make sure you’re solely focused on driving. Let them know that you take driving seriously and don’t want to get distracted and cause a potential accident. Let’s get back into music, create a playlist before you enter the car of music you like, or even calming music if you’re an anxious driver so you don’t have to change the song and touch your phone while driving. When or if you are playing music, don’t have the music too loud you still want to hear the things going on around you.

I personally have never experienced a car accident, but I have had experience with other drivers who were distracted whether it was them being on their phone, the music was too loud, or they were not looking at the road and had almost hit someone, or they’re serving in and out of lanes. I am sure many of you have had this experience with either yourself or with someone you are driving with, and it can be very scary and frightening for not only you but for those who are in the car with you or other drivers. When you’re driving while distracted, you’re not just risking injury to yourselves. You’re risking injury and/or death of the other drivers, and your passengers.

Steps we all can take to become better, safer drivers, and help protect not only us but others on the road is being focused and knowing what is going on around you. Knowing what is going around you and paying attention to what other drivers are doing can help you to avoid accidents. This can be seen as a driver serving in and out of lanes, so you stay behind them and are not driving right on top of them. To see that someone is trying to merge into your lane when there is no room, and they are nearly about to hit you, so you slow down or beep to let them know you are there. When we all come together to learn the steps and precaution we can better the roads were driving on.

As we have all become better educated on what is distracted driving and how to avoid being distracted while driving, we can all start to be the change. My little sister is turning 16 at the end of august and personally experience being so close to getting hit and being in accidents I am scared to have her on the road and potentially getting a phone call that she has been in a serious accident. Know what a distraction is and be the change, you don’t want to be the reason to why someone has been hurt, or experiencing a loved one being hurt due to distracted driving.