Driven to Distraction: There should be more awareness around distracted driving

Cold air rushed out of my 2007 Lexus GS300 air vents onto my clammy face. I sat with near-perfect posture in my grey leather driver’s seat, white-knuckling the black steering wheel. 

The temperature was nearing triple digits, the sun was shining through my sunroof and I was on the way to my lifeguard job. I could feel my phone buzzing in my pocket from various apps, but nothing — not even a text from my friend or a call from my mom — could take my eyes off the road. 

Normally, I’d quickly open my friend’s Snapchat while driving down Mission Road or pick up my phone to change a song on Spotify. But after my childhood best friend died after being involved in a distracted driving car accident, it was time for me to recognize the seriousness of driving. 

But it shouldn’t have taken the death of the girl I played Barbies with in preschool for me to be attentive on the road. 

We are all told in Driver’s Ed not to text and drive but at some point it becomes normalized to pick up your phone at a stoplight. I’ve definitely seen my parents and friends responding to a “quick” text while stopping for thirty seconds. Distracted driving is a prevalent issue and there must be more awareness surrounding the topic, especially in Kansas.

Based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Kansas has the second-most fatal distracted driving accidents in the country, with 110 in 2024. 

And, my friend and her family were involved in one of those 110 accidents. 

On June 10, my friend and her three family members were on their way to Warrensburg, Missouri for a family trip. They were stopped at a stop sign when a truck drifted from an adjacent highway, becoming partially airborne before T-boning their SUV. 

Two of the four passengers in the car were killed on site, and my friend and her sister were airlifted to a nearby hospital. My 16-year-old friend was pronounced dead two days later, but the other 16-year-old truck driver walked away from the scene with minor injuries and no charges. 

He told the Missouri highway patrol he fell asleep at the wheel.

After hearing this, I was outraged. How could someone legally licensed to drive a vehicle fall asleep while behind the wheel?

Sure, I can drift off while learning the pH scale in AP Chemistry, but not when going 70 miles per hour down the highway. 

While sleepiness isn’t what comes to mind when thinking about distracted driving, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimated that there are 328,000 drowsy driving crashes annually. My driver’s ed instructor told me not to text, eat or call at the wheel, much less take a nap. 

Not to mention, driving drowsy can have the same effects as driving drunk. The National Safety Council reported that driving after going more than 20 hours without sleep can have the same effects as driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08%.

Driving with a BAC of 0.08 could result in a DUI in the state of Kansas. 

However, the people driving without any sleep won’t get jail time like they would for a DUI. 

Texting and driving accidents are even more common, and the “don’t text and drive” law is there for a reason. I bet most of us can admit to checking a message or plugging in directions at the wheel — myself included.  

While it may seem like you just take five seconds to read a message or send a Snap, at 55 mph the NHTSA reported it’s the same as traveling the length of a football field blindfolded. And that’s just five seconds. 

If you have a license, you should never drive distracted. Anything from eating a snack to watching a TikTok can wait until you arrive at your destination. No text is ever more important than someone’s life.

I would never wish for someone to lose someone they love in a car crash, but trust me, if it happens to you, you’ll also be more attentive on the road. So next time you get a simple notification, ask yourself if checking it is really worth the risk.