October 15, 2024, Durham, NC – iRT is dedicated to preventing distracted and impaired driving and helping drivers, prevention professionals, and community members protect themselves and others on the road. Plan My Ride is iRT’s interactive, multimedia, eLearning program developed with and for young drivers to teach safe driving skills to prevent distracted and impaired driving. Unlike other safe driving educational programs, Plan My Ride uses a science-backed and theory-driven approach to change behavior by teaching concrete, practical strategies to avoid impaired and distracted driving, and providing opportunities for young drivers to practice the skills they have learned in 360-degree virtual scenarios. The program is accessible on mobile devices and computers to meet teens where they are.
This article is the sixth in a series of articles describing how each lesson of the Plan My Ride program was strategically designed to help young drivers learn important information and strategies to prevent distracted and impaired driving.
Plan My Ride Lesson 6: Prevent Opioid Use and Driving
The percentage of adolescents that have reported ever misusing opioids has decreased over the past few years; however, the national opioid crisis remains an urgent and complex public health issue for young people.1 While opioid use is decreasing, the number of adolescent overdose deaths is increasing, which may indicate greater toxicity in opioids today.2 In addition, popularity of different types of opioids is constantly evolving, so it is important to educate young people on various types of drugs and their dangers, so they can keep themselves safe.
The goals of Lesson 6 of Plan My Ride are to teach young people about the dangers of driving under the influence of opioids and ways they can avoid it, so they can make safe, responsible decisions.
Learning what opioids are and destigmatizing substance use disorders.
Lesson 6 begins by teaching young drivers about different types of opioids, so they are better able to identify them. Young drivers also learn what to do if they think someone near them has overdosed and why Naloxone is used in overdose emergencies.
A main goal of the lesson is to help young drivers understand how and why addiction to opioids may begin as well as to challenge stigmas surrounding opioid use disorder. For example, the lesson explains that addiction to opioids can begin when they are used legally or illegally, even if the user has taken an opioid as prescribed by a doctor. It also explains that opioid use disorder can happen to anyone and that it is treatable, but treatment can be complex. Importantly, young drivers learn that using drugs is not a sign of weakness and that it can be difficult for people to control their choices to continue or stop use of opioids once addiction has begun.
Understanding how opioids can affect driving skills.
Lesson 6 discusses how opioids can cause nausea, confusion, and drowsiness which can increase the likelihood that a driver may fall asleep behind the wheel. Young drivers also learn that opioids can impair their judgment, decision-making, and attention, making it difficult for them to stay alert and react quickly while driving. Vision impairment from opioids can cause poor lane control as well. The lesson discusses how withdrawal symptoms, brought on by discontinuing opioids, may make it difficult for drivers to safely control a vehicle.
In addition, young drivers learn that using opioids and driving can negatively impact their lives in many ways, not just their health and safety. They learn that receiving a DUI could have significant impacts on their social, academic, and personal life in the short and long term.
Learn to avoid driving under the influence of opioids.
After learning the impacts of opioids, young drivers learn strategies they can use before and during their drive to avoid using opioids. For example, they learn how to refuse if they are offered a medication that is not theirs. The lesson suggests that young drivers should see their doctor to discuss pain medication or other options when they are injured instead of accepting prescriptions from others.
To avoid driving while impaired, young drivers learn to think ahead when they are taking a prescription opioid or other impairing medication. Lesson 6 suggests asking for ride, taking the school bus, or staying home until they are no longer taking the medication. The lesson provides demonstration videos, so young drivers can learn where and what to look for on their medication bottles to check for warnings of impairment. They also learn to take a couple of days to monitor their response to any new medications they take before making the decision to drive or not.
Lastly, young drivers learn to avoid taking medication while they are driving and to pull over and find an alternate ride if they begin to feel drowsy or other medication side effects during their drive.
Lesson 6 concludes with a brief knowledge-check quiz to test drivers’ knowledge of the safe driving strategies they learned throughout the lesson. The knowledge-check quiz is designed to promote reflection and retention of information within the program in learners. The number of correct and incorrect answers to the knowledge-check quiz questions can be viewed by teachers or other program administrators to determine if additional instruction or follow-up training is needed to build mastery of the knowledge taught in the program.
If you are interested in offering the Plan My Ride program to young drivers to prevent substance-impaired driving, visit https://planmyride.net/ to learn more and get started.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2013–2023.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2024.
- 2023, December 13. Reported drug use among adolescents continued to hold below pre-pandemic levels in 2023. Retrieved from https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2023/12/reported-drug-use-among-adolescents-continued-to-hold-below-pre-pandemic-levels-in-2023 on 2024, October 7