Impaired driving can mean so many things from someone driving recklessly, to someone not following the rules. For me impaired driving is just someone who does things without thinking about the consequences no matter if sober, or not. They don't care if they speed, and drive during harsh weather. Impaired driving is sometimes misunderstood even by drivers that have had education when driving because many people see it as a joke sometimes like why would I need to learn this information, it's so unnecessary. They feel like they may be invincible and nothing bad is going to happen to them. So their thought process is like I know what to do during situations like these, but at the same time they don’t. Let me tell you that nowadays texting is most common amongst drivers today. Texting for me while driving is really scary, because I know most of us text and drive, or just use it to see a message. This can cause horrible collisions, and deaths. When it comes to driving it affects your ability to drive because you are too focused on what's on your phone than the road. You think just because I keep my eyes off the road for a couple seconds nothing bad can happen. This unsafe behavior can cause you to kill someone, yourself, or even innocent people crossing the streets with their dogs. Yes, I have heard many stories from my family about someone close to me driving impaired. My cousin in fact had 3 car accidents throughout the course of his life, one of them was due to a man driving and not stopping at a light which caused him to get run over .The other two times were for driving using his phone. This was shocking at that moment because I never believed that someone from my family was going to be in a car accident. It did open my eyes a lot more because it showed me that driving impaired can affect you so much. This story made me realize how fast you can end yours or someone else's life. This next story is a different life story that may or may not be part of impaired driving.

      This story was a huge shocker to mean and I couldn't believe that it would ever happen to someone I love and care about. My father, who wakes up pretty early around 3 am in the morning, went to work last year in October. This could be considered impaired driving due to the fact that of course waking up early can cause fatigue and just your focus is not entirely on the road. Well my father was driving on the highway and was going to work in Hollywood when all of a sudden he crashed into a car,  and then spun all the way to the other side of the freeway. My mom got a call from my dad saying that he was in an accident and that he couldn’t move. I was in total shock that I felt like it couldn’t be true. He did get to the hospital safely and we started to talk to him about what really happened. When he told me this story he said that it wasn’t his fault due to the fact that there was a car in the middle of the freeway, and it was basically abandoned. My mom asked my dad if he was texting while driving and he said no. But, really thinking about this incident, could it have been prevented if he slept more, maybe, maybe not. It just all leads down to how someone feels, and their ability to drive. I know that driving that early in the morning can be dangerous, and of course can cause drowsiness due to lack of sleep. Driving education courses can help change attitudes in many ways considering the fact that it will help us understand the consequences of driving impaired, and also these courses can help us better understand why it’s important to not drink, do drugs, or text while driving. I feel like the things that make these programs effective is the amount of care that these programs put in, the amount of hard work and dedication being put out there. Without the care of these people doing these programs then I feel like more accidents would happen. The role that I can take to prevent impaired driving is not using my phone while driving no matter if someone texts me, or I am trying to change the music. Preventing this can cause a lot of lives to be saved. Also some other things I can do is really telling my family members and others around me that driving impaired is a serious issue and that we should start paying attention to it more. My knowledge can help influence others by telling others the stories that I have heard and how it's really not something to joke about.