In just a couple short weeks, the campus will be cleared of people for winter break. Students will be driving home to be with family, enjoying a well-deserved break before the spring semester.

I live in Omaha and drive down a two-lane highway to get to and from school, which is something I am still not very used to. Driving can be kind of scary, especially at night. Add any sort of adverse weather, and I will officially begin to freak out.

I will always take some precautionary measures to make sure that if an accident does occur, I won’t be at fault.

My phone will be placed in the passenger seat or in my pocket and it stays there. The. Whole. Time.

There is no excuse to be texting or tweeting while driving (you know who you are). Texting while driving is probably one of the most reckless and stupid activities to take attempt in you car. Forget the fact that you don’t have both hands on the wheel. Your brain is so preoccupied by the text you are sending that you forget to watch the road.

Most of us have seen the commercials that have the tagline “it can wait,” which discusses keeping your eyes off your phone and on the road. A majority of the commercials feature family members opening up about how texting while driving has affected them. They usually talk about the last text message a family member sent before crashing their car and dying.

One commercial featured someone that was a little bit more shocking.

It had an interview with a man who had killed someone because he was texting and driving. You can potentially kill another person by making the decision to pick up your phone rather than just waiting.

Which also brings me to drunk driving. I cannot stress this enough. Never, ever, ever get into the driver’s seat if you are even slightly tipsy, nor should you get in a car with someone if they are drunk.

Not only could you end up getting in an accident, you could also get a DUI. If you get multiple DUI’s then you risk facing jail time or getting your license revoked for a lengthy period.

No one really considers being tired while driving a very scary thing. When I worked in retail, I would close the store after working nine hours, then I would have to be at work by six in the morning the next day and work another nine hours. Sometimes I drove to work and honestly had no recollection of how I got to the parking lot.

Even though I made it to work safely, that was incredibly dangerous of me. If you are tired, don’t drive. Have someone else drive you or take a nap before you take to the roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that over 100,000 of the crashes reported to the police were caused by driver drowsiness.

Take all of these risks and add some snow and ice and there is potentially a huge problem for students.

Make sure you get home safely for break. Don’t text, don’t drink and don’t be tired while driving. WSC wants to see you back at school next semester safe and sound.