I started the journey toward getting my own driver’s license almost a year ago. It was through that journey that I realized how much focus and dedication it takes to be a safe and effective driver. You need to make sure your seat is at the right angle to reach the pedals and see your mirrors. At the same time, you need to make sure that your mirrors are adjusted to maximize your field of vision. You need to be aware of other drivers but never lose focus of your own car. You must watch your mirrors but not for so long that you lose focus of the road in front of you. Any type of distraction risks upsetting this delicate balance of rules that every driver must know. Therefore, impaired driving to me is anything, matter how small or big it may be, that takes a driver’s focus away from active driving. 

                  The most common form of impaired driving that I see is using technology, specifically texting, when driving. The rise of phone stands made for cars has increased the use of technology when driving. The intention of these stands is to make it easier for drivers to use their phones for GPS navigation. However, I have seen so many drivers using their phone stands to watch television or scroll on social media while actively driving. In doing this, these drivers are not only endangering themselves, but other drivers as well. Technology is an increasingly important part of our daily lives. We use it for entertainment, scheduling, communication etc. However, a 1-2 second look down at a text on a phone could mean the difference between a safe drive and a fatal one.

                  Unfortunately, fatality caused by driving is something I had to see at a young age. I was 10 years old the first time I ever saw someone die in a car accident. My sister and I were sitting happy in the backseat when suddenly, my mother urgently told us to look away from the window. However, I didn’t look away fast enough to avoid seeing a body wrapped in a white sheet being carried away from two cars that had been in a head-on collision. That driving, something which is so common to daily American life, could end someone’s life was incomprehensible to my younger self. Obviously, I didn’t know the exact circumstances of this car accident. I don’t know if the drivers were impaired or not, and any driver has the potential to get in an accident. However, I do know that driving can be dangerous and there’s no need to compound that danger with distractions. Viewing this accident at such a formative age gave me a healthy sense of awareness of how dangerous the open road can be. When I’m behind the wheel I am hypervigilant, doing everything I can to make it safely to my destination. In other words, I always try to practice defensive driving.

                  My defensive driving skills were strengthened by my experience in driver education. There was a large focus on the dangers of texting when driving as it is a common form of impaired driving. I watched interviews from people who claimed to be “good” at texting when driving. They claimed that they were able to text while still paying full attention to the obstacles of the road. However, these claims were contradicted by statistics from my driving school about the amount of car accidents caused every year by texting and talking when driving. My driver education courses taught me that impaired driving is not a problem isolated to just one state or country. It is a global problem that will affect every driver at some point in their driving journey. Therefore, driver education provides an awareness of impaired driving that is necessary for every driver. Not only did my driver education teach me to avoid impaired driving as a means of accident prevention; it also taught me actionable things to do in the event of an accident. Mitigation and prevention can only do so much in a world of widespread impaired driving. So, driver education made feel prepared for any situation, even situations where normal prevention strategies wouldn’t be as effective. Ultimately, driving education creates drivers not are not only confident but educated as well.

                  To prevent impaired driving, I can realize the responsibility I have to myself as well as other drivers. If someone saw me using safe driving practices that I learned from my training, I would hope they would be inspired to practice safe driving themselves. As responsible drivers, we are all responsible for each other’s safety on the road.