One of the target goals (3.6.1) is to lower the total death rate caused by motor vehicle accidents. For this week's blog, I chose to investigate how the United States of America is working towards having safer roads and highways. The reason why i chose the United States is because this is where we live and I think there can be a lot of improvement done in regards to having fewer motor vehicle accidents.
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| Photo accessed from https://www.makeroadssafe.org/ |
According to Safe Roads USA, there are over 143 Million Americans that commute on roads every single day. In a single year, it is estimated that about 30,000 of these Americans die due to motor vehicle accidents (Safe Roads USA, 2019). There are many reasons why people get in accidents. They might loose control of their vehicle, get distracted or even be under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
One way Americans are working on having safer driving habits are through technology. Most Americans can admit to texting and driving. It only takes a second to look down at your phone and in that one second you can rear end someone, hit an object in the road or even a person crossing the street.In the more recent years cars are being built with the capability to connect to Bluetooth so that drivers are able to talk "hands free". People can make phone calls without having to actually hold the phone. On iPhone's, there is a Do Not Disturb mode you can turn on while you are driving. This temporarily stops messages from popping up while the phone is connected to Bluetooth and the phone senses that the vehicle is in motion. Whenever someone sends a text they will see that the recipient has Do Not Disturb on and that the recipient will get back with them later.
Technology companies like AT&T launched the "It Can Wait" campaign. The goal of the campaign is for drivers to wait until they are no longer behind the wheel of a vehicle to send a text, email, etc. Drivers essentially pledge to stay off their phones and focus on driving. This campaign launched in 2010 and so far, 38, 984,588 people have made the pledge (AT&T It Can Wait, 2019).
The company uses billboards and commercials to advertise their campaign in hopes of having safer drivers throughout America.
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| Photo accessed from AT&T It Can Wait Campaign |
Safe Roads USA and the AT&T Campaign are two ways America has started to initiate progress in making roads safer. I can only hope that more people have better driving habits and there are a significantly less amount of motor vehicle accidents.
Citations
BE A STAR. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.itcanwait.com/home.
Distracted Driving Behaviors Making American Roads More Dangerous. (2019, April 5). Retrieved from https://www.makeroadssafe.org/distracted-driving-behaviors-making-american-roads-more-dangerous/.
Hello Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI was just reading your post and I could not help but think back to my high school experience with driving while distracted. My high school did a lot of work when it comes to the prevention of texting while driving. Despite efforts of improving awareness and understanding, that could not save this one junior (whose name will remain anonymous out of respect) from hydroplaning on a very dangerous highway due to not seeing a puddle on the road. If he was not on his phone that one day, it would have saved the whole community a whole year-long mourning period, especially for his family. My school was dark and it was almost like all the life was taken out of my classmates and teachers. After witnessing this event first-hand, I was simply told that it could happen to anyone and that no one is too far away from being snatched at any point.
Hi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI think not texting and driving is an extremely important issue. Personally, I was glad when Texas made it law to not text and drive. I have almost been run off the road on many occasions because of someone who was more interested in their social media feeds. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has outlined some rules parents should follow when teaching their kids about proper driving and phone etiquette. If we are able to teach our kids proper driving from the start, we can lessen the amounts of vehicle deaths. The Hospital also says “[p]arents should also avoid calling their teen when he or she is driving. Instead ask to be called before leaving one place and when arriving at the next destination. A teen may feel compelled to answer a parent's call if received while driving” (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2019). I like how the Hospital also has guidelines for parents to follow. It can help teach on both sides of the aisle.
References:
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. (2019). Cell Phones. Retrieved from https://www.teendriversource.org/teen-crash-risks-prevention/distracted-driving/cell-phones.