The first thing an impaired driver feels is regret. I remember the face my dad made when he rear-ended my mom’s van, and the colorful words he used right after. He hadn’t been on the phone with his boss for more than 30 seconds, it was on a turn right off of a suburban neighborhood; it couldn’t have been more by-the-book. By then I was all too familiar with the saying: “don’t text while driving!” And my father was, too, but you never imagine that it could be you until you’re already holding your breath and thinking about the next steps: check the damage, call your insurance, and hope they’re not jerks about it. And that’s only if a tragedy was avoided.

To be an impaired driver you must be at a physical and cognitive disadvantage when you’re behind the wheel. This can be caused by a distraction: a phone, loud music, or an over-chatty passenger. It can also be when you’re in any physical state but alert and sober: drunk, high, angry, depressed, or sleepy. The spectrum is much broader than a lot of people understand, when a reckless driver almost crashes on you while speeding on the highway and your first reflex is to honk and try to catch up with them, you're being an impaired driver letting your surroundings distract you from the road ahead. But what’s worse is those who see those “not the time to check your seatbelt” warning street signs and continue to scroll on Instagram - those who understand the consequences and choose to ignore it. 

If we’re all too familiar with this tale as old as time, why is it that our classmates continue to brag about speeding on the highway with their innocent friends on board, and why do they wait until there’s a massive crash involving their fellow students to really act accordingly? The answer is simple: they just don’t imagine it being them. I believe that everything that can be avoided, should be avoided, and the only way to do that is to spread conscious understanding, and a safe amount of rational fear onto our drivers. Now, a lot of these bad habits stem from the accessibility of these impairments, as well as the environment our teens are exposed to from a young age. If their older siblings used to smoke when picking them up from school, or if their notifications are always on when they’re on the road, then they are not only predisposed but also actively endangering themselves. To become an impaired driver you take certain steps: you stop caring about the warnings, you get brave and look at your phone at the stop light for the first time, you go over the speed limit “just 10 miles!”, and there’s no next step because an emergency waits for no one to be ready. So to NOT be an impaired driver you also need to take certain steps.

When you’re in the process of earning your driver’s licence, you are at a very critical learning stage. You are so eager to do everything right to pass, but too eager to take the real-world implications to heart. That’s why traffic school courses need to do their best to mentally place these kids in that moment when they think: Oh, shoot. Videos will always do a great job to be informative, talking to a person who was an impaired driver at the worst time is really going to cement the lesson into them. But that’s only going to make them afraid, what you need to do is give them tools. Help them build an attitude that says: I got this, I know what to do in this situation. Make more preventive guidelines such as turning off notifications when they enter the car, or raising the minimum legal permit age if necessary since most car crashes are caused by 16-17 year olds. But what kids need most is someone they can relate to and trust, giving them good role models that understand them and their pressures is worth its weight in gold.

When I’m behind the wheel I feel the weight of responsibility run through my hands and the power a swing of the pedal can have. Just knowing that is enough to sober me up completely. And I hope that my friends, family, and community members learn to be just as conscientious about the power they have over their lives and others around them when they pick up their keys.