Student drivers weaving in and out of the parking lot at Green Hope High are a common occurrence at several times of the day.
The culture of risky driving throughout the student body reveals itself in many ways. Many students participate in this law-defying behavior that ranges from nearly scraping other vehicles while leaving school to speeding down Carpenter Upchurch Road when returning.
Students are also frequently found blasting music in their vehicles which serves as a distraction for drivers. Excessively loud music can also cause hearing damage in vehicle occupants.
Nonetheless, some students listen to music while driving in an even more dangerous way: through personal headphones or earbuds.
Not only does this distract drivers who may already drive dangerously, it completely prevents drivers from hearing the horns of other vehicles and even sirens from emergency response vehicles.
Loud music can impair drivers by shifting their focus from the road to their music. Due to how drivers can be impaired by the use of headphones or earbuds some states such as Ohio, Georgia, Virginia, Washington, California, New York, Florida and more have made it illegal to operate a vehicle while wearing any form of in or over-ear audio devices.
The GH Falcon interviewed a senior who requested to be anonymous about their wear of personal audio devices while driving, “I wear headphones every now and then because I lost my aux cord. But normally I won’t ever wear them.”
Many other students also drive with audio devices in simply because they had them in while walking to their car and then decide not to go through the hassle of unpairing their phones from their headphones and repairing with their vehicle.
In regards to how safe they feel while navigating in and out of the parking lot the anonymous student stated, “I don’t really fear being hit by Green Hope drivers. But at the same time, I have seen some very stupid things happen which has concerned me a bit. I would say it is very common for Green Hope students to speed. Especially during lunch, speeding is very common.”
Examples of this behavior is especially common during lunch because students are in a rush to drive to their lunch locations, eat and then return to school all in under an hour. This rush contributes to students speeding and even illegally passing other students who they feel are driving too slow.
I think that not wanting to get overtaken is a main factor for speeding, that and just not noticing the number on the speedometer. — Anonymous Falcon
Ultimately student drivers will continue to exhibit risky driving behavior while impairing themselves by wearing headphones or earbuds while driving.
