Drivers Ed: The Graduate Edition

Drivers Ed: The Graduate Edition

Feliciano Arrieta
Blake E. Megason
April 10, 2016

Abstract

Drivers Ed: The Graduate Edition

When in drivers education they teach you how to drive, you know like: Ten
and Two, use your blinker, check your mirrors, and Paying Attention to the road. Now
this doesnt mean to make sure that the road doesnt open up and some
paranormal or supernatural event happens, NO. Paying attention to the road means
the drivers around you, any hazards in the way, making sure youre going the speed
limit, staying in your lane and all that safety stuff. NOT using your phone, eating,
doing your makeup, adjusting the radio, or anything that takes your attention away
from the road. Recently with the advancement of cell phones car accidents are
rising. Research conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, through 2014
drivers between the ages of 15-20 constitute for 6.4% of all the drivers on the road,
with that they also constitute for 10% of all accidents resulting in death and nearly
14% of all police reported crashes with injury or death. In that same study
conducted in 2015, researchers analyzed the last six seconds of a crash of 1,700
videos of teen drivers with in-vehicle recorders. The results provided that distraction
was a cause for 58% of all crashes studied. Those results included that 89% of all
road-departure crashes and 76% of rear-end crashes were also a result of the driver
being distracted (NEJM,2014, 307.54-59). Yes, it may seem we are picking on the
teenage demographic, but the evidence and studies show that teenagers are
distracted drivers. The conclusion being is that as a teen grows up he/she is so used
to being on their phone that when they drive its hard to ignore the text message or
status update they receive. The simple conclusion is to have their main focus on the
road and the events around them. This way the crash and death rates decrease.
People need to learn the dangerous tragedy of how being distracted when driving
can be. Laws to prevent cell phone use in school zones and in other certain areas
have been implemented. I dont think we need laws to be put in place but just the

Drivers Ed: The Graduate Edition

publics action to follow the proper procedures to protect themselves and other
people on the road.

Drivers Ed: The Graduate Edition

People seem to think that because they have a license and a fancy car means
their above the rest of people on the road, but theyre not. Say those people have
passengers in the car and theyre driving reckless, the person driving is putting
those passengers at risk for injury or death with their driving habits. Or what about
the other people outside of the vehicle, in other cars on the road, how about their
well-being. Now what people dont seem to realize is just because you have the
newest sports car or a big 4-wheel vehicle, doesnt mean youre the only person on
the road. So just because you have a high profile vehicle doesnt mean you can be
doing a secondary task that takes away your focus from the road. When this
happens they drive fast and focus on the secondary task taking their attention away
from the road and cannot make those quick reactions that choose between life,
injury, or death. Bad driving habits are hard to shake but easy to start, on average
9% of all persons driving during the day do so while dialing or talking on a cell
phone or sending and receiving text messages (NEJM, 2014, 307.54-59). When
people understand how the involvement of a secondary task when driving is highly
dangerous their ideas and habits may change to protect themselves and their
passengers.
The New England Journal of Medicine states that the use of a cell phone while
driving increases the risk of a crash 4 times more than being focused completely on

Drivers Ed: The Graduate Edition

the road. In adolescent driver the use of a cell phone increases the frequency of
swerving or deviating from a center-line in a lane. Adolescent drivers are also
likely to enter an intersection at a red or yellow light. Among experienced drivers
who indicate the use of a cell phone use delays reaction to potential road hazards,
increases following distance, and decreases the drivers visual scan of the
environment. Performance of a secondary task by experienced or adolescent drivers
increases the risk of a crash because it is cognitively demanding (prevents full
attention to driving) the drivers eyes get taken off the road and he or she cannot
respond to unexpected hazards.
The 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study, which involved experienced drivers,
and the Naturalistic Teenage Driving Study, which involves novice drivers, uses
data-recording devices installed in participants vehicles to assess their behaviors
while driving and during a crash or near-crash. In the analyses of the NTDS data
among newly licensed drivers, crash rates or near-crashes were 3.9 times higher at
the same rates to their parents when they drove the same vehicles. Also the rates
of a gravitational force event (hard braking or making sharp turns) were 5.1 times
as high. With this information of both studies, the risk of a crash or near-crash
among novice and experienced drivers, needs respect to the prevalence of a
secondary task.