I believe that impaired driving is any situation where you are not able to drive with one hundred percent concentration. When people hear the word “impaired,” they often jump straight to the idea of someone being drunk or high behind the wheel, but impairment is much broader than that. Anything inside or outside the car that steals your full attention can weaken your ability to drive safely. Bright headlights from oncoming traffic, a sudden vehicle malfunction, loud music, or emotional overstimulation can all contribute to impaired driving.

 I feel like people commonly misunderstand the definition of impaired, which is: being in an imperfect or weakened state or condition. When it’s put like that, it becomes clear that losing or weakening any one of your five senses can count as impairment. If your vision is reduced because you're rubbing your eyes while driving, if your hearing is affected because your music is too loud, or if your reaction time slows because you're exhausted, you're technically impaired. But we don't treat the situations with the same level of seriousness as we treat alcohol or drug impairment. Since the media mainly highlights the casualties and statistics about driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, those stories feel dramatic and shocking. They don't spend a lot of time showing the countless incidents caused by texting, daydreaming, nodding off, or trying to multitask while driving. Because of this, many drivers believe that as long as they're still conscious and “feeling normal” or “fine,” then the consequences of impairment won’t affect them. People assume that if they haven't had a drink, they must be safe but the truth is no one ever believes it could be them until the moment it is.

In my opinion, the most common type of impairment today would be device usage. Almost everyone has some kind of device with them at all times, whether that’s a cell phones, tablets, smartwatches, or the touch-screen radio in your car. These cause a sense of distraction for the driver. The sudden flash of light from a screen, an unwelcome call from a spam number, the five seconds it takes you to skip a song, or sending that final message so you don't forget later. You might think you can glance down quickly, and nothing will happen, but during the few seconds the car in front of you could stop, a child could cross the street, or a light could change you don't realize how fast the situation develops on the road until you've missed something important.

On TikTok, there is a meme-ish trend going around that quotes “Point Of View: When you almost crash, and it kills the mood for the whole drive.” In the video, everyone is putting on their seatbelts, inclining their seats, the music is off, and everyone is silent. I assume just like everyone else, I laughed at the video, but then my awareness was triggered. Social media has normalized unsafe driving and desensitized it to everyone. The first mistake was that everyone's seatbelts were supposed to be on before the car was put into motion. As passengers within the vehicle, they shouldn’t have been a distraction to the driver while driving. The most shocking part of the whole video was that the driver was putting everyone in harm's way trying to follow “a vibe”. 

Driver's education helps shift people's attitude about impaired driving by teaching new drivers the dangers they won’t always notice on their own. It breaks down every detail of what impairment looks like, whether it’s the use of alcohol, drugs, cell phones, or even fatigue, and shows us the real consequences of those choices. Programs like driver’s education and traffic school prepare students for situations that are difficult to explain without examples, and bring awareness to offenders who were required to take the classes because they lived and now must learn. With the idea that practice makes perfect, driver’s ed gives us hands-on skills and safe driving habits, so we’re better prepared in real-world situations. When these behaviors are actually practiced, we are more likely to make safer decisions and avoid risky habits. This mix of information and real practice is what makes driver's education effective.

I hope to use my knowledge for impaired drivers to encourage my friends and those around me to make smarter decisions behind the wheel and as passengers. Acknowledging that it's not a meme anymore, it's actually something far more serious that needs to stop being normalized. Keeping myself safe by speaking up and refusing to ride with an impaired driver or to impair myself while driving.