One of my friends visited her family in Boston this past summer; when she got back, she shared stories of how she went hiking, visited monuments, and played games with her cousin. All of a sudden, her tone changed from casual recollection to near excitement as she added, “Oh, and I almost crashed my uncle’s car.”

That made me pause. She’s fifteen, still five months away from getting her learner’s permit. I know it’s not uncommon for parents to take their kid out driving in empty parking lots before they have their permits, but to be in a situation where you can crash a car at that age is far less common. She continued; “He let me drive his van home from our hiking trip, and I didn’t see a stop sign. There weren’t any cars around, but he still yelled at me and made me pull over.”

“Oh,” I said, somewhat relieved that the story wasn’t as dangerous as she’d made it sound. But I also knew things could’ve turned out a lot different if there were other cars around, and that was unsettling enough.

“I’m a pretty good driver, though!” She added on. I chuckled a little, thinking she was being sarcastic - like I am after I park super crooked or make a 3-point turn more like a 7-point. The way she looked at me, though, told me she was serious.

“You don’t have your permit yet,” I told her. “You can’t be a good driver already. That’s like, an oxymoron.”

“Well, I know how to drive,” she argued back.

“Driving isn’t just about actually driving a car. It’s about knowing how to drive in a way that’s safe for everyone. Plus, it doesn’t matter if you’re a ‘good’ driver - you should aim to be a safe driver above everything else,” I explained. “And driving without a permit, which just proves you know how to be a safe driver, is definitely not safe.”

“Sure, whatever.”

The conversation ended; she was upset at the fact that I said she wasn’t a good driver, and I was upset that she thought she was. We didn’t talk about that experience again, but afterwards, I started to notice the way even my friends with licenses talked about being distracted or driving dangerously so openly. They would talk about how they “still need to practice stopping at stop signs” or show the rest of us pictures they took of things while driving - meaning they obviously were not paying attention to the road. I used to justify it to myself by thinking, “That’s their choice; I wouldn’t do that, but they can decide for themselves what they’re comfortable with.”

Except their choices don’t just affect them. If they choose to be on their phones while driving or race when they end up next to each other at stoplights, that’s not just raising their risk of crashing; it’s also increasing the chance that every person in the cars around them can crash, too. It’s hard for anyone to admit that their actions could have such a negative effect on those around them, and I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why impaired driving is so prevalent and misunderstood.

To me, impaired driving means driving without being fully aware of your surroundings. Drugs and alcohol are the most obvious culprits, in part because of the work done by drunk driving campaigns. But there are other things that can impair driving, like phone use, fatigue, even things like loud music or conversations. I would argue that someone who hasn’t gone through driver’s education yet - like my friend who drove underage in Boston - is also impaired, since they don’t know what they need to be aware of. 

If stopping impaired driving was as simple as just making people aware of all the things that could make them impaired, though, the number of deaths as a result of driving each year would be far less 34,000. So why is impaired driving still so prevalent? Because of something called the optimism bias, where people underestimate the chance of something bad happening to them; they may know that something bad, like a car crash, can occur as a result of impaired driving, but due to the subconscious belief that “stuff like that doesn’t happen to me,” they grow complacent on safety precautions, justifying the use of their phone at red lights or the blasting of music or a quick look back at their friends who are laughing in the backseat. And unfortunately, any one of those actions can, has, and will continue to cause a crash.

It doesn’t matter how many tests drivers have to take on impaired driving, how many videos they watch on the lives that have been changed as a result, or how many slogans are pasted on billboards emphasizing the many ways drivers can be impaired. Because of the optimism bias, drivers will rationalize their own impairment:

This is not to say that it’s pointless to educate on the dangers of impaired driving. All this means is that a different approach is needed. If driver’s education programs pair their lessons on impaired driving with discussions on the optimism bias, students will not only be aware of what can impair their driving but also be able to combat their own false beliefs that they won’t ‘actually’ be impaired. 

Additionally, deeper discussions into how and why certain things (texting, conversations, loud music, etc.) impair driving can make drivers more willing to follow safety procedures. Imagine someone telling you, “Don’t touch the stove when it’s on” without explaining why; a lot of people would touch it to find out. But if you add “because it’s hot and will burn you,” suddenly people will be far more willing to follow your direction - even more so if you tell them their actions will hurt someone else.

We all play a role to prevent impaired driving, even when we’re not driving ourselves. Small things like offering to read directions aloud so the driver doesn’t need to look at their phone or saving longer conversations for later can make a huge difference in preventing a crash. Most importantly, understand that it’s never okay for someone to choose to drive impaired - they’re not just risking their own life, but the lives of everyone around them. It’s not about being a cool driver or even a good driver - it’s about being a safe driver above all else.