Safety is counted in Seconds

2025 Driver Education Round 3

Safety is counted in Seconds

0 votes

Logan Johnson

Waconia, Minnesota

It is crucial that people keep safety as the top priority when driving. We share the road with everyone, families who rely on others to make the right decision. Impaired driving can be anything from drugs, alcohol, distractions by other people in the car, distraction by things going on around us, driving tired, cell phones or car settings. Impaired driving is anything causing the driver to make them a risk on the road. This also includes people that don't follow road rules.
Minnesota Department of Public Safety ranked the most common infractions, number 1 was speeding, distracted driving (texting), seatbelt, and impaired driving includes DWI. During an April 2025 campaign, Minnesota officers issued 6,450 citations for hands-free cell phone violations. Distracted driving is a common and growing citation.
Minnesota’s hands-free distracted driving law went into effect on August 1, 2019. The law was enacted after years of rising distraction-related crashes. 1 in 9 crashes contributed to distractions. The text can wait. A good example of an outside distraction, here in Minnesota, we have a lot of construction going on during the summer. My dad, who is a great guy and a very good driver, took his eyes off the road for seconds, ended up hitting another car head on. This was in a small town, only going 30 miles an hour. Medics found the other driver in the passenger seat, shoe off. He was only going 30 miles an hour. A helicopter dropped down on the road to rush the kid to the hospital. The kid in the other car didn't have his seat belt on and almost died. My dad was distracted for literally a few seconds, looking at construction going on a side street. At the time when we didn't know if the person was going to live, he was living with the fact, he might have killed someone. He slumped into a depression for months. When we found out the person survived, it did help my dad’s mood but rattled him for many years afterwards.
Looking at the list of impaired driving, this is the no-brainer category, if you are on drugs, or drinking, don't drive. Poor planning is probably the biggest issue here. Before going out, plan your trip home or arrange to stay put. Decide who is the designated driver, get an uber to get home, order food or groceries to be delivered if you are hungry after under the influence. These are all easy things you can do if you just plan. There is no reason why you would drive impaired.
Driving tired is probably one of the harder situations to control. Even with a full night’s sleep, if you are getting up early and you are driving through rhythmic, soothing rain, on a dark dreary day, you can become an impaired driver. There are some things you can do to avoid this. Be aware of how tired you are and make sure you are checking in with yourself to see how you are feeling. Once you feel tired, and you acknowledge it, you have a few options. You can switch off with another driver, pull over and sleep, do a few jumping jacks to get the blood pumping, eat sunflower seeds, or drink something with caffeine in it. It might make the trip longer but safer for everyone.
Another big issue I see is drivers not following the correct driving laws. Four way stop signs, no one seems to get this right. At a four-way stop sign intersection, the vehicle that arrives first has the right of way. If multiple cars arrive at the same time, the vehicle located furthest to the right generally has the right to go through the intersection first. Frequently, the vehicle that arrives first proceeds through the intersection, followed by the car directly opposite—even if it arrived later—rather than the vehicle to the immediate right of the first car that stopped. Another common issue I see is roundabouts. Where I live, we have a lot of roundabouts being put up because they are supposed to be safer, but people don't know how to obey the driving law. When driving in a roundabout, people should always yield to traffic already in the roundabout. Minnesota Department of Transportation statistics show 40-45% of vehicles did not yield properly entering a roundabout. So many times, people don't yield or even look up to see if someone is already in the roundabout. Many older people with a license should consider taking a refresher driver's course or anyone would benefit from a defensive driving class.
I take my responsibility very seriously when driving. Learning from my dad's experience, it only takes a second to change your life and more importantly someone else's life forever.