The Real but Scary Consequences of Unsafe Driving

In the United States, there are estimated to be about 19,937 car crashes per day and about 34,000 deaths per year caused by car accidents. Because so many people get injured or die due to car accidents, it is crucial to be educated on safe driving. To reduce these numbers, more awareness should be brought to the issues of unsafe driving, and citizens need to be more educated on the dangers of speeding, driving distracted, and seatbelt use.

Speeding is very dangerous and increases the likelihood of a crash. It causes the driver to more likely lose control of the vehicle, and it decreases the amount of the time the driver has to react. It increases the severity of a crash, and the protection inside the car becomes less effective. Speeding contributes to about one third of car crash fatalities each year. My mom is a traffic safety resource prosecutor in the state of Missouri. She specializes in traffic safety offenses and works with law enforcement to investigate and prosecute those who violate traffic laws. She is forced to see gruesome pictures of car accidents as well as hear and talk about the tragedies that unsafe driving causes. She often tells me about the cases that she is working on. I specifically remember one story she told me about that really stuck with me. A teenage girl was going 90mph and took a sharp turn. One of the passengers in the back seat was ejected out of the car and died instantly when she hit the ground. My mom explained that the pictures of the scene were horrific, and the damage done to the passenger’s body was awful. Stories like this have turned me into a heavy advocate for safe driving and educating others on this topic has become important to me.

Another topic that drivers need to be more educated on is the effects of distracted driving. A little over a year ago, I was driving my little sister to school, and we got rear-ended. The car in front of us breaked to turn into their driveway off a main road. I breaked in response, and the truck behind me hit us and totaled my car. The window on the back of my car shattered, sending glass shards into the road and into the trunk of my car. The whole backside of my car was dented. Luckily, my sister only got a minor concussion, and I was completely fine. The first thing he asked me when he came up to my window was why I had breaked. I was confused why he asked me this because it was an obvious answer to me: the car in front of me was turning. Turns out, the truck driver was on his phone. In 2022, 3,308 lives were taken due to distracted driving. Distracted driving includes texting, calling, eating, messing with the stereo, or anything that sidetracks the driver from driving. In recent years, with the growth of technology, the use of cell phones while driving has become a huge problem. Looking at your phone for only 5 seconds going 55 mph is equivalent to driving 120 yards, the size of a football field. Driver’s need to have full attention on the road to be driving safely.

Wearing your seatbelt is the most effective way to save lives and reduce injuries for older kids and adults in car accidents. It’s one of the first things my mom taught me about car safety. It’s something she has reminded me for as long as I can remember and has been drilled into my head. Wearing my seatbelt has become a routine habit for me, and it’s something that I believe everyone should do, even on short drives. In 2021, more than half people aged from 13-54 who died in car crashes were not buckled. In 2017, seatbelts saved over 15,000 lives. These statistics alone show the importance of seatbelt use. It’s such a simple, easy action that can save so many lives and prevent serious injuries.

I believe that if greater awareness is brought to these topics, it can reduce the number of accidents related to speeding, distracted driving, and seatbelt use. These three problems are easily preventable: don’t speed, don’t drive while distracted, and wear your seatbelt. They are simple fixes that can be applied to more people’s daily lives if they simply learn more about the consequences of unsafe driving. If people were to be better educated on these scary, serious facts about car accidents, they would be more likely to drive safer.