Safe Drive and stay alive

Everytime you sit in the driver’s seat, think about your family, your friends, your future. You mean something to so many people, everytime you are in the driver seat you need to take everything around you extremely seriously. Taking a form of driver’s education limits your risk of a car related accident. In drivers education you learn not only how to drive a car but you learn about the laws of driving, how to “communicate” with the drivers around you, and most importantly how to be safe in a vehicle. In 2021 around 3,000 teens died in car accidents. As more teens learn how to drive the bigger that number increases. In the US the 4th cause of death is car accidents. In 2019 6.7 billion calls were made to the police about motor vehicle crashes. We could lower that number significantly if we take a drivers education course. For every person who takes a drivers ed course is less likely to get into accidents because they know the laws of the road. Something we can all do to reduce the amount of car related deaths is simply to pay attention. Texting and driving is the leading problem to car accidents. If you are unfocused or distracted you are automatically more likely to get into an accident. We also need to evaluate ourselves before getting into the driver’s seat. Making sure we are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. We should also be checking how we feel, sometimes our emotions can distract us from the road. Other distractions could include, other people in the car, or the music in the car. Making sure we limit the amount of distractions can help us dramatically. There are lots of different steps we can take to become a better/ a safer driver. The biggest step is to take drivers ed., it helps tremendously, there are people who help you to get better at driving! Being aware at all times is a major step at becoming a safe driver. Making sure you are alert and awake. Making sure you aren’t driving while tired or driving long hours throughout the night. Driving sleepy is just like driving distracted, you aren’t paying attention to the road. And things like mint gum, the AC, or other tips and tricks will only keep you awake for short times and in the end just make you more tired. One important rule that you may not think of is to never depend on the other drivers around you. If a driver stops at the same time at a stop sign just let them go first, or you can try to communicate with one another. Make sure you aren’t speeding and trying to go with the flow of traffic. When you’re speeding you aren’t giving yourself enough time to react to something that might come up ahead, like an abrupt stop in traffic. The last thing I think you can do to become a safer/better driver is to practice driving. Before you get your license and you have your permit try to go out with a parent or a guardian and just practice driving. If you practice in different road situations it will prepare you for situations when you might have to handle it alone (i.e. heavy traffic, parallel parking, dirt roads, ect.). I have personally used these steps and they have helped me with my driving significantly from the time I got my learners permit to present day. My mother was in a car accident when I was very young but still affects her life daily. In 2011 my mom was driving to work, she worked out of town in a smaller town nearby. It was early and still dark out, and a deer ran out in front of her. She swerved and went into the ditch. She broke her kneecap in half and had to undergo a surgery to connect the two pieces together. She wasn’t able to walk for 4 months and after that she had to do intensive physical therapy. If my mom would’ve been more alert and had her brights on she might’ve seen the deer and would’ve been able to make a stop. She completely totaled her car, which she could’ve avoided. It still bothers her after almost 14 years. She still wears a brace if we are doing an intense physical activity or even if the weather is cold. If we take a drivers education course we can make ourselves better drivers. It could decrease the amount of deaths a year. Nothing bad can come out of you taking a simple course that can only benefit you.