If you were to ask me what “impaired driving” is, my response would be that impaired driving is any activity or participation that reduces the safety of the driver, passengers in the car, and the other drivers on the road. These would include the basics like drugs and alcohol, but also the less thought of ones, like texting and fatigue. It’s a common misconception for drivers to believe they can “multitask” while driving because they have completed the basic driver’s education and passed, or have been driving for many years. However, even the simple task of eating while driving is impaired driving.

Today, the most common form of impaired driving is alcohol or drug-related. Involving yourself in activities like this places you and everyone else on and around the road at a severe risk. When you take drugs or alcohol, your brain begins to experience many negative effects that lead you to be a dangerous driver without you even realizing it. Your judgment is one of the first things to be affected. Drugs and alcohol can cause you to become overconfident in your driving abilities, making you believe you aren’t as impaired as you actually are. Your body also experiences harmful effects like slower reaction time, poor coordination, trouble staying balanced, and blurred or doubled vision. All of these things make it much harder to focus on the road and respond quickly when something unexpected happens.

I can remember in my first year of driving when I was coming home from a party late at night. The route I usually take home was blocked off by police cars and ambulances. I had no choice but to take a detour. The next morning, there was a news report of what had happened. A drunk driver had died in the crash, and the other driver involved was left severely injured. I remember thinking about how I originally wanted to leave the party earlier, but ended up staying longer. If I had left when I first planned, I could have been on that same road at the same time as that impaired driver. The thought stayed with me for a long time. It didn’t change my reasoning for why impaired driving is dangerous. I already understood that, but it did make me realize how easily you can become the “other car” in a situation caused by someone else’s reckless choice.

Many people don’t consider how far impairment can reach. Most people think of drunk driving when the topic comes up, but impairment goes way beyond alcohol. Fatigue can be just as dangerous, especially when someone has been awake for many hours and decides to drive home anyway. And texting while driving, even if you’re just looking down for a second, takes your eyes off the road long enough for something bad to happen. A lot of drivers assume nothing will happen to them because they’ve been driving for years or because they think they’re careful. But impairment doesn’t care how long you’ve had your license. A distracted or tired driver can cause a crash just as fast as someone under the influence, no matter how long you have been driving.

This is where driver’s education and traffic school can make a difference, but only if the lessons actually stick. Many classes go over impaired driving once or twice and expect students to remember everything. But the truth is, most students forget the majority of what they learn unless it’s repeated. When something is only taught briefly, especially near the end of a course, it fades out of your mind pretty quickly. I think that’s part of the reason people underestimate impaired driving. They heard about it once, but they never had it drilled into them the way other driving rules are.

Driver’s education could help more if it focused on repetition and real experiences. Instead of just reading slides or listening to a quick lecture, students could hear stories from people who have lived through the consequences of impaired driving. They could have hands-on demonstrations showing how impairment slows reaction time or affects vision. When lessons feel real and connect to emotions, they become harder to ignore or forget. If new drivers were taught about impairment more often, and in different ways, it would likely change their attitudes and encourage safer habits.

But preventing impaired driving isn’t just up to the instructors. Every driver has a personal role in keeping the road safe. For me, that means being honest with myself about the state I’m in before I get behind the wheel. If I’m tired, distracted, upset, or not focused, I have to acknowledge that and make a responsible choice and ask for someone else to drive for me. It also means speaking up when someone else is about to make a bad decision, even if it feels awkward. Telling a friend not to drive after drinking or asking someone to put their phone down shouldn’t be something we are afraid to do. We are preventing something tragic from happening. Even choosing not to get into a car with an impaired driver is a form of taking responsibility.

Impaired driving can come from many different things, and it is often misunderstood or underestimated. But by combining awareness, education, repetition, and personal responsibility, we can help reduce unsafe driving behaviors. We can’t control everyone, but we can control our own choices. And sometimes, one responsible choice is enough to save a life.