Like many parents, my mom worries about me driving. In a city as big as Houston, I don’t blame her. People like to go fast, they like to whip around you, and they like to honk. I don’t know who is sitting in the driver’s seat in the car near me, all I can do is hope that they are paying attention while we both drive home.

Impaired driving does not just mean that someone is under the influence of alcohol and drugs, it can often be that you’re not fully there when driving. The first time I learned this, I was working on my driver’s ed course on my grandparent’s couch. The course taught me that impaired driving happens when your focus is taken away from the wheel for whatever reason. I listened and learned, and then I looked at my phone and thought of all the distractions that a small cellphone carries with it. I realized on that day that it is easy for me to make decisions and avoid using alcohol and drugs, it’s something that I will not do. But, as a high school teen, I have to be willing to not use my phone. There are a lot of videos available to remind us of the dangers, and as teens we watch these videos and think to ourselves, This won’t really affect me, I don’t drink alcohol or do drugs, I’m fine! Our phones are perfect ways to become a distraction. They ding and make noises, and we tell ourselves that we can multitask, but we are new to driving, we don’t have it down enough. It is so hard to not want to look and see who sent the message while sitting at a red light. 

I am trying to challenge myself to avoid this impairment while driving, but it is such a challenge!  I appreciate that it helps guide me to places in my busy city of Houston. My parents got around with maps when they were my age, but I still have to worry about the dangers. Our phones hold so much communication and the world is so fast, often it seems like a lot of changes happen between school and home. I feel such a pressure to engage in this time. I think though, to that reminder on my grandparent’s couch that a cellphone is a distraction, or impairment. I have also had to remind people that I will not talk with them on the phone while I drive. This is where impaired driving can become quite dangerous and frightening accidents can happen.

Living in the middle of Houston, I do not have a lot of friends who drive, so luckily I do not have a firsthand story of a tragic impaired accident. But Houston also has a lot of people who do very interesting multi-tasking while driving, and I live about 40 minutes from my high school. I see a lot of impaired action while my parents drive me on I-10.  I once counted fifteen cars where the drivers were on their phones! Each person had one hand on the wheel and one phone in their hand. I am sure there were coffee cups and music channel-changing also happening during their phone conversations. A few drivers yawned, too, but, if they would put the phone down, that would be one more hand on the wheel. 

My grandmother tells me all the time, “The text message can wait, you need to get there safely.” It becomes tempting to want to use your phone, like scratching a mosquito bite in the summer. If you don’t get distracted by your phone, you can still get tired. So many people end up crashing because they couldn’t focus enough to drive. My dad tells me that I can’t get into a stare or else I’m going to get into a crash. When you’re tired, you don’t have your full attention, and one mistake, one swerve can cause an accident. 

When it comes to driving safety and the results of driving impairments, our thoughts jump automatically to drinking and drugs. Both drugs and alcohol cause people to feel out of control. When they are out of control, they aren’t fully aware of their surroundings, causing them to not care as much when they don’t check their blind spots when switching lanes. Being in control changes the narrative, it lets you make your decisions with your full attention.

I remember watching a driver’s ed video where one of the kids was talking about how he sent a short text to his friend and crashed into a biker. That story stuck with me. To think, one text message changed someone’s entire life. It was haunting. Sometimes when I get into the car before I drive, I think about that kid who sent that text message. That’s why when I would get tired of having to watch so many videos on my driver’s ed course, I realized that there was a reason why they had to show us them. Without those stories, we aren’t as aware of what happens to people, we don’t realize that there is someone else in the car next to us. Yes, I have to get home, but the driver in the blue car in front of me does too. They don’t want to get in a wreck just as much as I don’t want to. It is not just my responsibility, but it is also just the right thing to do. Maybe I don’t have the ability to control what the people in different cars do, but I know that I can ask people to put the phone down when they are driving. Sometimes people need to just have a little reminder.

Somewhere out there, there is another mom who says that they aren’t worried about their child driving, but they are worried about the other drivers. I am the other drivers, you are the other drivers. Every single person around me has to put their trust into me, just like I do with them. We all have to hope that someone is not going to let themselves become distracted or influenced. That means, I need to make sure I don’t let myself get distracted. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to get home.