The title looks incomplete, doesn’t it? Impaired driving ends… what? The real question is, what doesn’t it end? Consider the motorcyclist who hit a deer. He couldn’t sleep, so he rolled out of bed in his t-shirt and shorts and went out for a late-night ride, around three in the morning. As the cool night wind washed over him, his eyes fixed on a point somewhere on the horizon and everything faded away, the serenity of the night lulling him into a comfortable hypnosis. A deer shot out in front of him, but that wasn’t supposed to be part of the drive. It didn’t fit with what his tired brain expected to see. It took him just a half-second too long to register its presence. After hitting the deer, the bike’s front wheel came to a dead stop. The biker did not. He was going 60 miles per hour when he hit the deer. He was on an empty road and, due to his fatigue, decided that the exhilaration of speeding was worth the risk. He flew about 40 feet after contact and slid for another 20. He died in the hospital the next day with severe lacerations, broken bones, and internal bleeding. So what does that end for him? His life. His dreams. His hopes for a better life. That ends his family’s life as they know it and their hopes of seeing him succeed. That ends his chance to find love and grow old surrounded by children and grandchildren. And why? Not because he was drunk, or high, or even texting someone. He was just tired and zoned out. So he hit a deer going 60 mph and died the next day.

 This is why impaired driving is so often misunderstood:  you don’t have to be drunk to be impaired. Driving while tired or distracted can be all the impairment necessary for disaster to strike. And while the exact story I told in my introduction may or may not be true, it is based on a true story told by those who witnessed firsthand the consequences of a biker hitting a deer. These types of stories should make us question. Why did it happen? How did it happen? What can be done to keep it from happening again?

           Let’s start with the basics: what does it mean to be impaired when driving? Again, it isn’t just substance use that causes impaired driving. So what does? The dictionary definition of impaired is “being in an imperfect or weakened state or condition”; impaired driving is driving in such a state. What are some of the more common types of impairments among modern drivers? According to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), drug and alcohol use, distractions, and drowsiness are commonly at fault. The first two seem fairly self-explanatory, so what constitutes distracted driving? 

          According to the NHTSA, the definition of distracted driving is “...any activity that diverts attention from driving, including talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system — anything that takes your attention away from the task of safe driving.” Distractions break down into three categories: visual, manual, or cognitive. Visual is taking the eyes off the road, manual is taking the hands off the wheel, and cognitive is taking the mind off driving. Visual and manual distractions are easy to be aware of, but cognitive distractions are insidious. If focusing on the evening’s dinner might catastrophically distract a driver, what might fixating on a recent, emotional breakup do to a teenager?

          Next let’s consider drowsy driving. Why does being drowsy have such a potential for harm? Does it only come from the possibility of falling asleep at the wheel, or is it the impaired decision-making that causes it to be dangerous?  This is something I can speak to personally. 

Going into town on a winter day, I was riding with a driver who had slept poorly the night before. As a result, he was making worse decisions than usual. The roads were slick, and we approached a hill with an intersection at the bottom. He drove too fast down the hill and, on the icy road, was unable to slow the vehicle as we entered a semi-controlled slide. We barreled through the intersection and nearly made it through without incident, but collided with another car. While thankfully no one was hurt, both cars were totalled. This should highlight the high potential for catastrophic accidents that can cascade from a single poor decision to drive when impaired.

          I don’t want this essay to be fearmongering, but I would like for it to be a sobering reminder that driving to work is perhaps the most dangerous thing a person will regularly do. An unhealthy fear of driving won’t make the road safer, but a healthy respect for the multi-ton machines we pilot will. I hope that the stories and dangers outlined in this essay will be a constant reminder to readers, as well as to myself, to consider the possible consequences of every action we take. These sobering reminders should be incorporated into driving courses nationwide to create thoughtful drivers, rather than fearful ones. I also hope that, through this essay and personal conversations, I can influence others to avoid driving while impaired.

         Impaired driving ends lives.

         Impaired driving ends when people choose to do the right thing.