In American society, we typically use car as our main transportation system, but because everyone is so used to driving around, people often forget that driving can become dangerous very quickly. Many of us have heard about impaired driving and immediately think of drugs and alcohol, but impaired driving can be more than just driving under the influence. Impaired driving is not just drugs and alcohol, but it is anything that affects your judgement behind the wheels. 
There are so many distractions which can cause drivers to get into accidents. Some of the main ones are phone distractions, fatigue, eating, or drinking. All of these contribute to very unsafe behavior on the road. Driving requires full attention to the road at all times. There are many people that think they can multitask and say they are fine, but then get into major accidents down the road whenit could have been prevented by putting their phones down while driving. As you can see texting and calling is one of the biggest reasons for accidents. Texting or trying to reach for your phone while driving can become fatal due to the fact that your eyes are not fully on the road. In order to prevent phone hazards on the road, people can put their phones on silent while driving. Another big issue is fatigue. there are many of us that have to drive long hours, which makes us sleepy and doze off. There are even many people that get into car accidents because they are drowsy and started to drift or reacted late. In drivers eduaction, we are taught to pull over or find a resting place to take a break if we are feeling tired after driving for long hours. Getting tired will impair judgement and slow reaction time on the road. When people get tired on the road, they should let someone else drive or they should got to rest areas. 
Many of us do this while we are driving and many not think too much about it, but eating and drinking can also be a huge distraction as well. Sometimes when we go somewhere or when we do not have time, we order or buy something from a restaurant or drive-through area and then we eat while driving. The reason why this is a huge is because we need to understand that eating and drinking while driving pulls away our attention from the road even if it is only a short amount of time. The biggest issue is that we are all educated about all these types of distractions from drivers education or from parents, but once we are on our own, we forget or get overconfident in our driving skills. In drivers education, we are shown videos of people who have gotten into terrible accidents from impaired driving and we see the effects and consequences it had on the people involved. Many of the consequences were injuries, sadness, and even death. There is one distraction that is very overlooked, which is friends. Teenagers want to have fun, go places, then oftentimes get rides from each other or other friends. This can become very dangerous because friends will talk to each other and can get the driver distarcted as well. Many teenagers forget safety once they are comfortable with driving and can end up in a terrible accident due to carelessness. Some things that make drivers education effective is that they share videos and experiences about teenagers acting reckless during driving and learn the consequences from the big accident.
Even though there are many downsides, distractions and hazards can easily be prevented whle on the road. One of the main things we hear when first learning to drive is "Don't text and drive". This is especially true on todays society because everyone is addicted to their phones, making this a very serious issue. Some other precautions are to stop somewhere if you need to rest or eat in the car. Other important precautions are to not drive if you consume alcohol and to also be aware of people riding with you because they can become a big distraction. There are many ways to prevent impaired driving and we all know this because people have taught us. 
In the end, we hear about many accidents due to impaired driving. We need to become more aware and keep in mind that small distractions can lead to big accidents down the road. I will write this again, anything that affects our judgements or thinking is considered a distraction and is impaired driving. We need to realize that our recklessness on the road can be very fatal and we need to become aware that our actions can change our lives.