When I think of “impaired driving,” I think of someone who emotionally cannot understand why accidents can be life threatening. That is why someone who is an “impaired driver” smokes, drinks, or drives aggressively, because they either aren’t educated about how dangerous driving really is, or they don’t take it seriously enough. It is sometimes misunderstood because even after people have completed drivers education or traffic school, when they start driving more often, they realize how many people don’t follow the law or drive safely and therefore, think it’s okay. For example, when you're fresh out of driver's education or freshly getting your license you might drive extra carefully. But after a while, as you start to notice how other drivers drive, you may start to go over the speed limit, go on your phone while at a red light, might not check your blind spots as often, might not care to leave a three-second cushion between you and the vehicle ahead of you, etc. Then, that is when you might start to take the risk even more by becoming an “impaired driver.” You might start to think “oh, I’ve only had one drink, it’s okay to drive” or “oh, let me take this phone call,” or “oh, I’ll be fine, I’m not that tired.” But in reality, each driver who slowly starts not to care is just increasing the risk of there being more accidents. 

Alcohol and drugs are the most common types of impairment among young drivers today. To start, alcohol affects your thinking, your reaction time, your focus, your judgement, and how you see. In order to drive safely, you need to be alert, aware, and able to make quick decisions in case of an emergency or safety hazard. However, when you are impaired by alcohol, it is much harder to judge how fast another vehicle is going, and how quickly you can brake and steer to avoid a vehicle that is going faster than you thought. Your vision might also be blurred, likely causing you to weave in and out of lanes, speed excessively, miss stop signs, and drive off the road. All of these are dangerous mistakes that can lead to a brutal accident. Unfortunately, many people might think that they aren’t impaired because they only had a little bit of alcohol. However, even small amounts of alcohol can still make a big difference in your driving ability and that is why if you drink, you just shouldn’t drive at all. Drugs also affect you the same way as alcohol, except it is more overlooked because not all drugs may seem like they can affect your driving. However, even prescribed drugs or over the counter-medications can affect your driving just as dangerously because they can cause drowsiness which overall slows you down. 

When I was doing driver’s education, during the “Alcohol and Drugs” module I had to watch a video about a mom who found out her teenage daughter got killed because of another impaired driver. You could tell she was very emotional and it was hard for her to talk about it. It changed the way I think about driving because it made me think about how horrible I would feel if I killed another person’s daughter because of my own mistakes. It shaped my awareness of how serious the subject really is, and how dangerous impaired driving can really be. From now on when I get behind the wheel, I also drive extra carefully by looking for signs of impaired drivers and safely going past them, and making sure I’m extra focused while I’m driving even though I’m not impaired because anything can happen at any moment and I don’t want it to be my fault. 

Driver’s education and traffic school courses can help change attitudes and behaviors around impaired driving because they each teach the correct driver the mindset you should have while you’re driving. I know that when I was taking driver’s education, it completely opened my eyes up on how I should think and act in order to drive safely. Driver’s education will also give you a lot of specifics on what to do in certain situations while driving, how to make sure you’re properly taking care of your car, and give you statistics that will make you more aware of what kind of impaired driving is most popular. Doing traffic school with another experienced driver could also show you how to drive defensively. These are effective in real-world situations because while you're driving, you are able to put to use the skills you’ve learned in drivers education and in traffic school. 

Lastly, I can personally play a role in preventing impaired driving by making sure that I always drive safely and defensively and to never drive while I am impaired. My knowledge of what I learned during driver’s education can influence others to make safer decisions by refusing to drive aggressively. When I have other passengers in the car with me, I can make sure that I am not being distracted by them, music, etc and instead purely focus on the destination. I know I am not the only one on the road and everyone deserves to get home safely after driving. By knowing that, I will never drive impaired.