Driving is an essential part of life, but it is also very dangerous if we don't do it responsibly. Impaired driving for me is when your ability to drive safely is hindered. Meaning you can't drive to the best of your ability. I think sometimes it's misunderstood as just happening when you drink or are on a substance, but in reality, it can even be small things like lack of sleep or being distracted on your phone. It doesn't matter what you're doing as long as it distracts you from the road. I think many people misunderstand it because they think they are really good drivers, or they think they can still function while doing multiple things at once, but in order to ensure proper safety of themselves and those around them, they need to be 100 percent focused. I think the most common types of impairments today are texting and fatigue. I feel like drinking and driving is very frowned upon in our culture, which is good, and that helps people not to be encouraged to try it, but texting is deemed as one of the lighter forms of impairment. This shouldn't be the case because even if we think it's not as serious as drinking, it still yields a similar result: the risk of being in an accident. My mom always told me a story of someone that killed a whole family by being distracted on their phone and he ended up never being able to get over it. He was sent to jail for what he had done. This story stuck with me as a reason to not be distracted on the road, and much less drink and drive. Stories like these serve as testimonies for what we should not be doing. The sooner we understand the consequences and the severity of what is at stake the sooner we as a people will avoid doing this. This is why I believe this should be a bigger topic of discussion. No family deserves to go out like that just because someone wasn't thinking and decided to do something he wasn't supposed to be doing. There is no better way to drive impaired; all impaired driving is dangerous and has serious consequences, as we can see in this story. The crazy thing is that these situations are very common because accidents are so common but we don't try to find the root of the problem which is in most cases, one if not both, drivers were distracted. I think that driving classes and all the informational classes can help people recognize what not to do. It can also give them a new perspective on all the possible damages they can cause and what the consequences would be for those situations. I myself have been involved in an accident where the lady who hit me was not entirely concentrated on the road. This caused her to hit my car, and it started spinning. This changed the way I drove because I was way more careful. I always made sure to drive defensively because you cannot expect the other person to be safe. You have to be ready for the worst to save your life and the life of the other driver. Experiences like these change you and your perspective on this topic. This can be prevented, and stories like these can influence people so they can avoid it and not have to live through it. These programs are effective because they can limit the number of accidents and deaths that are linked to impaired drivers, and they can create a safer environment when driving. These programs can reach people better than just words due to the variety of ways they show people the results and consequences of driving impaired. I think that I can prevent impaired driving in a lot of ways; one of the ways is to not do it myself. Never text, drink, or even as small as getting a good sleep before a trip. This is what I can do personally; what I can do for others is tell them about the risks and inform them what impaired driving is. Many people need to be informed of its dangers. I think the next generation of drivers can also be influenced by us. We can show them how to drive safely, and to do that, we need to be able to follow what we learn about the dangers of impaired driving. The classes and training would also influence others if they took them. I think that every driver should participate in these due to the importance of keeping our streets safe from risks that shouldn't even be present.