Last week’s summer solstice — the longest day of the year — marked the official beginning of a new season. It’s one of my favorite times of the year because of the warmer weather and days filled with sunshine.
These days, however, I can tell that it’s summer not because of how warm it is or how many hours of daylight we have but instead by how much time I spend in the car.
I’m rarely in the car during winter, spring and fall, as I live less than 2 miles from where I teach. The grocery store, gas station and other stores I frequent are all close to home.
For the past two summers, however, I have spent between six and eight hours a day in the car in either June or July teaching driver’s education to 15- and 16-year-old students.
Teaching young adults to drive can be challenging at times but is also very rewarding as you see first hand how much they improve during the six days you work with them.
What is stressful, however, is what I see from the passenger’s seat as we drive around northeast Indiana all day — from both rural and urban areas to up and down the interstate.
In fact, it’s downright distressing.
The number of distracted drivers my students and I see each day is shocking.
And by distracted I mean motorists who are driving at the same time they are holding their smartphones in their hands and using it as they drive. Some are texting while others appear to be reading an email or looking at social media.
What they all have in common is that they’re distracted and using their phones while driving.
I started to keep a running total of how many drivers I observed using their phones behind the wheel but stopped after reaching 20. The number at the end of last week would easily be double that amount.
This worrisome practice, however, isn’t just limited to northeast Indiana. It appears that during the global pandemic that Americans became more distracted by using their phones while driving and that trend has continued upward, according to an article published Feb. 22 in Vox.
Phone motion and screen interaction while driving increased about 20% between 2020 and 2022, according to the Vox report.
The same article later highlighted that more than one-third of the distracted driving happened when motorists were driving 50 mph or faster.
Educators are always on the lookout for teachable moments but I wish it were more difficult — impossible, in fact — to find examples of distracted driving to point out to my students as we traverse northeast Indiana’s roadways. We have seen our fair share this summer of what you should not do while driving.
While what we have seen certainly is unsettling, I’m hopeful. I’m optimistic from my conversations in the car with students that they know how dangerous distracted driving is and that they will be better drivers than many motorists we see every day who are trying to multitask in the worst possible place — behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.
No text message, email or social media post is more important than your life and the life of someone else. Share that message this summer with anyone who will listen. This disturbing trend of seeing drivers distracted by their phones is one we can all agree needs to stop.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
