To me impaired driving means that you are operating a vehicle when your ability to drive safely is reduced. It can be reduced in many different ways including physically, mentally, or emotionally. Impaired driving is not always related to alcohol and drugs, you can also be impaired with fatigue and distractions whether it is texting and driving, or stress. Many people misunderstand the term impaired driving even after taking the drivers education or traffic safety course. People often underestimate the effects that stress, fatigue, and distracted driving can do to their driving ability. For example a person could feel like they are ok to drive while they are tired and not realize that their reflexes and their decision making are significantly slowed down. This can cause a big problem on the road if someone runs a red light, objects in the road, and more. My drivers education at my school focused on that there are a lot of things that are considered as impaired driving and we also talked about the legal consequences

Today, the most common form of impairment among drivers in Minnesota is alcohol. Even the tiniest amount of alcohol can end up reducing a person's reaction time, lower the person's coordination, and impair judgement, with all of this there is an increase in the risk of collisions. When people are tested on the side of the road to see if they are driving while impaired they balance on one foot and this is testing the person's coordination. Drivers that are driving while impaired with alcohol tend to misjudge the distance of objects and they don’t notice hazards which causes their driving to be even riskier.

This past year I had a personal experience of impaired driving. I was rear-ended at a stoplight when it was stop and go, the car behind me thought I was going to continue going but I had to stop and they ran into me. Even though the crash was not life threatening it still caused stress, it was scary, and it was 100% preventable. That moment showed me how dangerous distracted driving is even at a stoplight, it takes one second to look down at your phone to change your music to cause an accident. Since that has happened I find myself quite often looking at my rearview mirror to see how close the car is to me behind me and at stop lights I watch until the car has stopped. This has influenced me to not look at my phone at all unless I am parked. I also had an experience in middle school where the person that was driving the car I was in was under the influence of alcohol. We got pulled over and they got arrested after they were put through some tests. That night scared me and from then on I decided that I was never going to touch alcohol and if I did I would never drive drunk. I think that this experience really has shaped my view on driving while impaired.

Driver’s education and traffic safety courses I think can play an important role in preventing impaired driving. I think they can do this by showing videos, talking about stories, and talking about the legal consequences. These programs can teach people ways to avoid risky situations by choosing a designated driver, using uber or lyft, and taking breaks when you are feeling tired. I have seen the videos on youtube called every 15 minutes and this would be a great thing to show in the drivers education class either in real life or show a video to the class. This could show the students that when you are driving under the influence this can happen. The class can shape the long term habits of a driver to help them make safer choices.

I think that I have a role in preventing impaired driving by being a responsible driver. I can encourage others by making sure they don’t go on their phones or by taking over driving when they start to seem tired. I can also share the things that I learned in the drivers education class and that can influence my peers or family members to recognize when they should not be driving. I can tell others that I can drive when they seem to be impaired whether it is through fatigue, drugs, or alcohol. Every responsible choice that is made contributes to protecting lives not just my own, but my passengers, pedestrians, and other drivers.