Imagine this: you overslept and work starts in fifteen minutes. It’s a twenty minute drive to where you work. No matter what you do, you’re gonna be late, but you feel you can get there on time if you go just a little bit over the speed limit. You’re stressed about being late, maybe a bit tired still, and upset at the fact you overslept. You leave the house and speed out of your residential neighborhood, not watching for other cars or kids–you’re first mistake. You decide to go ten miles over the speed limit, but aren’t necessarily driving risky. You’re approaching a light, and if you make it, you might arrive at work on time, but if you miss it, you’ll be another five minutes late. So you take the risk, the light changes from green to yellow, but you’re still punching the gas. The light turns red and you’re not even in the intersection, but you don’t stop in fear of being late. The person with the green light doesn’t see you and they hit you. You weren’t drinking. You weren’t on your phone. You were impaired with a dangerous state of mind that led you to make a stupid decision that could cost someone else’s life or your own.

you’re driving along the streets, cruising at a good speed. You want to change the song that’s playing so you quickly grab your phone to hit next. But you notice your friend texted you, and because no one’s around, you decide to text back. It’ll be super quick you tell yourself, just type a few words and your focus goes back to the streets. So you do, and once you hit send, the phone goes off and your focus is back on the road. But it’s too late–as you were focused on texting, you didn’t realize you were approaching a red light and the cars in front of you were stopped. And just like that, you hit the car. You have no idea who was in that car or what damage you’ve done to them, or yourself. It’s not because you were drunk or took substances. It’s because you decided to simply pick up the phone.

When people think of ‘impaired driving’, they often look to alcohol or drugs, but since the introduction of phones, and infotainment displays on the center console, the meaning has changed. The textbook definition of impaired is operating a motor vehicle while your ability to drive safely is compromised by any substance or condition. Condition. The word condition is important, because it goes way beyond alcohol. Condition can mean emotion, or state of mind, or weather condition, and so much more. 

To me, the term “impaired driving” means the driver is not in a good state to drive, whether because of alcohol, drugs, or even emotions such as anger or excitement. The term can be misunderstood during driver’s ed, because there is a lot of focus on the dangerous effects of drugs, alcohol, and phone use, but not enough on how your state of mind can affect the way you drive.

I would say alcohol and texting are most common in drivers today. Alcohol is dangerous because people, especially younger teens, go to parties and drink, because ‘it’s cool’ or because others are doing it. The issue is that, half of the time, teens don’t know their limits or when to stop themselves, or the effects of driving drunk. That leads to very dangerous driving, and it’s even worse when the teens who are drunk have to drive their friends home too. They may also think they are okay to drive home, because their BAC level isn’t over the legal limit, and don’t take into account their mental state. 

Texting is becoming just as much of a problem though, and maybe even worse. People don’t see texting as dangerous, because it takes two seconds and you’re not mentally blocked by a substance. That’s where people have it wrong–because phones are super distracting, and it also takes two seconds for a life ending crash. It’s not just texting, but the idea of phones in cars. Some teens will use their phone to find a specific song or check the time, which again, is super distracting and dangerous because the brain is focused on a different task than driving.

One thing I’d like to see talked about more is the idea of driving while in different emotional states. It may sound silly, but people drive differently when they are stressed, nervous, excited, angry, tired, sad, and so much more. For example, I had a game during the day where we almost had to put my dog down because of health reasons. It was extremely sad and going through a bunch of different emotions. My parents would not let me drive myself anywhere that day. I became frustrated at that fact, and didn’t realize why they wouldn’t let me drive, even though I knew I would be extra careful. It’s not because they didn’t trust me, or didn’t think I was capable, they were just watching out for a kid who wasn’t in the right state to drive. Sometimes, when I’m running late, I catch myself going unnecessarily fast, and then I remind myself of the dangers, and take deep breaths to calm myself.

There are two stories in particular that have changed the way I see impaired driving and its dangers, and both happened in the past five years. One was about a group of teenagers who were driving home from Disneyland. From what I heard, the passengers fell asleep, and the driver was becoming tired as well. The driver fell victim to sleep as well and crashed into a tree a few blocks away from his house. No one died, thank god, but there were injuries. 

The other story was very similar, where our school had a football player who was driving home on the freeway and fell asleep behind the wheel. Unfortunately he passed away from the accident. To me, it just goes to show how quickly life can change or end in an instant, and it is scary. It’s scary how one moment you can say I’ll just rest my eyes, and the next you’re surrounded by ambulances because you fell asleep behind the wheel. It’s scary how you can not only change your life, but someone else’s, or even end their life, and have to possibly deal with that guilt for the rest of your life. Now, when I’m driving home after a game late at night, I blast my AC and listen to music loud to keep myself awake and aware. 

Again, I want to talk about how they should talk more about driving under certain states of mind. Most young drivers know the effects of drinking and driving or using phones while driving, whether because parents instilled it into them or other reasons. Driving while stressed or angry or sad is something that doesn’t need alcohol or a substance to cause danger–that’s why I see it as so dangerous. People usually think, if they didn’t touch their phone or have any substances before driving, that they are safe drivers, and that’s just not the case.

While I can’t stop anyone from drinking then driving, I can take actions to prevent them from hurting myself or others. I can offer to take the person home or take their keys, or call someone close to them to come pick them up. As for texting and other conditions, I can remind the person of the dangers. I personally will never drink and drive as it’s something my parents have taught me never to do, and I will follow that example. As well as never text or use my phone while driving or drive while in a dangerous state of mind.