One small text can’t hurt, right? Your friends are growing impatient, asking when you’re going to arrive. Shouldn’t you let them know that you’ll be there soon? You take your hand off of the wheel, eyes darting between the screen and the road as your fingers fly over the digital keyboard. Then, BAM! You slam on the brakes as the impact registers, both hands on the wheel now as you struggle to regain control of the vehicle. Eyes widening and heart racing, you step out of the vehicle doing a double take as you register the figure lying near the crosswalk. 

     One small text can hurt. Around 37 people a day die in drunk driving crashes and around 9 people die a day as a result of texting and driving. These statistics don’t account for other kinds of impaired driving, of which there are more than you might think. To me, impaired driving is when any activity or state of mind takes your full attention away from the road and what is happening around your vehicle. Many people only really think of texting and drunk driving when they think of impaired driving. However, driving can also be impaired by things like daydreaming, which can pull you into your own mind and put you in an autopilot state, meaning you aren’t focused on your surroundings and your reaction time is slower than usual. Even fatigue and certain medical conditions can impair driving in a similar way.

     Though there are many kinds of impaired driving, it is only natural that some types would be more common than others. Although alcohol-impaired driving makes up for the most deaths in the United States, I believe that the most common types of impaired driving are texting while driving and fatigued driving. Most people don’t go anywhere without their phones, meaning they are far more accessible and much more present in our lives in general than drugs and alcohol. When you’re so used to being able to check your phone all the time, it would make sense that you would have the urge to check your notifications while your hands are on the wheel. Using your phone while driving doesn’t even have to be texting or calling people, it can also be something as simple as changing your playlist. Fatigue is another thing that can easily happen to any driver, no matter their age. Demanding schedules, especially among students and people who work long hours, can lead to people being tired and less focused as they drive home at night. Stress is also a big factor in fatigue, and it has become increasingly more common as the cost of living has gotten higher. Though fatigue may not take your eyes off the road physically, unless you begin to fall asleep, it can make you more prone to spacing out. This can be just as dangerous, slowing your reaction time and impairing your judgement.

     While it may be tempting to pick up your phone or drive when you know you shouldn’t, these decisions have the potential to change people’s lives forever. Including your own. A few years ago in my city, a 16-year-old girl and her boyfriend’s 11-year-old sister were killed while walking together on a road close to our high school. I watched 2 years later as the older girl’s best friend accepted her diploma at their graduation. She held back tears as she spoke about how wonderful her friend was and about how she missed her. Though I’d assumed the driver had been knowingly driving impaired, whether he was texting or driving intoxicated, it was revealed that he had blacked out at the time of the incident as a result of an underlying medical condition. He was never charged. Hearing the story from someone who was deeply affected by the incident helped it feel more raw and real, and I still think about it whenever I hear about any kind of accident.

     Real stories about impaired driving told by people that lived through such incidents have the potential to stick with people and make them understand how important these issues are. Driver’s education and traffic schools have the perfect opportunity to share these stories with drivers. In my driver’s education course, we watched a video about the importance of seatbelts. Before my instructor pressed play, he told us that the man who made it had lost his own daughter in an accident where she wasn't wearing her own seatbelt. I can still remember that video to this day because of the emotion attached to it, and a similar thing could be done with videos about impaired driving. Driver’s education tells us what to do and what not to do, but it can also invoke emotions by sharing real stories and make sure drivers know the impact of their actions and decisions on other people. Stories like the one from this video and the incident from my town help me make safe choices when driving, and I know that they can inspire others to do the same.

     While I can help prevent impaired driving by not doing it myself, I can also be an advocate when driving with others. When my friends say they need to tell their parents something while driving, I always offer to text their parents from their phone to ensure that they don’t drive distracted. I could also be an advocate in other ways by participating in contests such as this one. 

     When you get behind the wheel, you have more power than you realize. In your hands, you hold the power to change lives, and it’s important that you use this power wisely. After all, one decision can change countless lives forever. Let’s go back to the story from the beginning, shall we? You hear that familiar buzz, and though you’re tempted to reach over and check the notification, you manage to resist. It’s not that important, you think to yourself. They can wait. As you scan the road in front of you, you notice the pedestrian strolling across the crosswalk up ahead, and you press on the breaks. As they reach the other side and you continue on your way, you can’t help but feel that in another life, things might have ended differently.