In the Canadian context, motor vehicle accidents outpace many criminal causes of death. Over 2,000 people die annually in motor vehicle crashes in Canada, with impaired driving as a key factor in killing hundreds and injuring thousands more. In the U.S., this number rises frighteningly, with nearly 40,000 people dead from motor vehicle accidents yearly.  This severe reality of negligent driving, including impaired driving, can be seen in how it results in so many fatalities related to driving. I consider impaired driving to be any condition that limits a person’s ability to make decisions, it also affects their ability to react and control their vehicle, such as drugs, alcohol, drowsiness, distraction or a variety of other issues that can make an accident happen where it might not have otherwise. I have witnessed drivers frequently misinterpreting impaired driving by believing it is only related to someone who has consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, while failing to recognize the danger or drowsiness and/or texting while driving. This paper will discuss my views on the ways these misconceptions occur, examples of frequent impairment, a story of change, education, and my own commitment to prevent negligent driving.

The definition of negligent driving is not limited to substance use. An individual may be impaired by drugs or fatigue, and often, people who are new to driving continue to be confused about their own level of impairment and negligence behind the wheel. Many times, driver’s education courses focus heavily on the dangers associated with alcohol use and ignore other negligent driving factors that cause impairment. Most new drivers do not have enough real-world experience to understand how fatigue affects their ability to react quickly, as it can slow a person's reaction by approximately three beers. In high school, I was one of the first of my classmates to get my driver’s license at 16, just around the time we started going to parties and experiencing new levels of freedom, which gave me a front-row seat to negligent driving. Friends piling into cars after house parties, kids bragging about “handling their drinks”, or brushing off exhaustion from all-night pre-games. The overconfidence, unchecked by experience, made a dangerous combination for some of my classmates.

In the United States, one of the most common causes of impairment among drivers is alcohol, with approximately 30% of traffic fatalities in 2023 attributed to alcohol consumption, resulting in 12,429 deaths (approximately one every 42 minutes). The group with the highest incidence of alcohol-related vehicular fatalities are 21-24 year olds, making up approximately 28% of all alcohol related driver fatalities within the United States. Similar to alcohol, the use of THC and cannabis-type substances has been linked to a significant number of injuries and deaths from automobile accidents. A detailed study of injured drivers in Canada revealed that approximately 16% of injured Canadian drivers tested positive for THC or cannabis-type substances. In the United States, distractions accounted for approximately 8% of all fatal crashes in 2021. Fatigue is also a contributing factor to crashes, accounting for approximately 91,000 crashes and 800 fatalities annually. Both alcohol and drugs can impair a driver’s judgement and coordination, resulting in drivers speeding, drifting out of lanes, while fatigue creates concentration limitations that mimic a driver operating a vehicle with a 0.05 BAC. In addition, the effect of texting while driving has been shown to delay reactions of a driver by 70%. In Canada, approximately 45% of young drivers’ fatal accidents involve drugs, and the results of combining drugs with alcohol appear to result in a much more serious fatality rate.

One story in particular about negligent driving has profoundly shifted my perspective. I moved to BC almost two years ago for University, where I play on the Women’s Soccer team. When I became a part of the athletics department at my University, I heard about a tragic accident that occurred the year before I arrived. Three young men from one of the sports teams were together, driving just off campus in broad daylight, when a truck hit them from behind. The driver was under the influence of alcohol, and took the lives of one of them, and permanently altered the lives of the other two, and subsequently many other lives affected by this accident. I saw how this accident, caused by negligence and extremely poor decision making, affected real people that I now know, and an entire community. When you decide to drive, you are not only responsible for your life, but the lives of the other people on the road. I have witnessed too many people I know be reckless and irresponsible about driving when they decide looking at their phone is more important than paying full attention to the road, or have one drink too many and still decide to get behind the wheel. It’s a disappointing reality that people make these decisions, or don’t even consider the repercussions, when it comes to driving.

Education and traffic safety programs fundamentally change the way drivers think about and respond to cars and traffic through experiential learning during the licensing process, which happens when a new driver’s behaviour is likely to develop into what will become their permanent habits, and no longer be at the beginning stages. Programs like “You Drink, You Drive, You Lose” continue to reduce driving after drinking, even after years,  by providing an opportunity to build empathy for victims and support for changing their behaviour before they drink again. Real-world effectiveness is shown in how successful psychological interventions are when educating young drivers on the risks of drinking and driving prior to accumulating the actual risks associated with them. I have always had very strong opinions about driving under the influence, texting and driving, and distracted driving in general. I will never get behind the wheel under the influence or if I’m not in a state where it is unsafe to drive. I have taken a friend's keys to prevent them from making the selfish decision of drinking and driving, and I will also stay consistent about this. 

The toll that negligent driving takes on our lives and the lives of those around us is significant, and we need to be proactive in lowering it. By educating ourselves on the true risks, sharing our personal experiences, and commitment to being responsible, we can pay tribute to the lives lost to this epidemic and help ensure that other people don’t fall victim to it. Accidents happen, but we have to combat negligence head-on by committing to driving responsibly, eliminating distractions, avoiding impairment or fatigue, and intervening with people who aren’t being responsible behind the wheel. It shouldn’t take a personal crash to grasp that responsible driving saves lives.