Get in gear!

Usually, when referring to driving safety, many individuals point out the basic rules, like keeping your seatbelt on or keeping an eye on your blind spot. Those rules are mandatory to ensure the safety of the individuals driving and/or participating as passengers in the car. I propose other safety guidelines that many fail to take note of, or instead, they take note of too late. For starters, I would like to address maintaining your vehicle correctly. It’s a given responsibility when you get your first car to keep tabs on its health. But oftentimes, specific car models are called back for whatever reason. It’s essential to check your vehicle for calls just in case the manufacturers find something wrong with the car model you are currently using. And, of course, make sure to maintain a reasonable schedule that goes alongside your day-to-day responsibilities to check the health of your car. Especially your brakes because going down the freeway and being unable to stop is horrifying, so do yourself a favor and ensure your vehicle is safe before you choose to drive it.

Furthermore, road rage can become a massive factor in wreckage. Let’s say you’re driving, and someone cuts you off on the road, and now you’re fuming more than the sun in the middle of July. Now that you’re allowing your emotions to control the situation rather than logic, you start to drive recklessly to get back at the person who cut you off. Now, I believe it’s safe to say if you’re old enough to drive, YOU have enough common sense not to allow yourself to stoop so low. However, many individuals forget that they are fully grown ADULTS and that something as minimal as someone lacking intelligence on the road shouldn’t be a reason for you to jeopardize your life. To prevent yourself from allowing road rage to be the death of you, I suggest that even amid your road rage, you acknowledge that your actions in response to other reckless drivers affect not only you but the people driving around you. Everyone on the road depends on you to make responsible decisions and not to be petty. But if this advice doesn’t help and you STILL struggle with road rage, I highly suggest that you look into some anger management classes. Please…it would be in your best interest to do so. Another issue I would like to address is that oftentimes, people forget to take notes while driving tailgating. The act of tailgating alone can cause a domino effect in car accidents, leading to severe damage and even death. If you’re driving too close to someone, it won’t give you room to move when you need to. So you would end up rear-ending the person in front of you. And depending on the speed you were going, the size of your car, and how it was built, you may or may not survive the crash. To prevent this potential tragedy, you must ensure you have a proper amount of space between you and the person driving in front of you. And if someone is tailgating, try to merge into a new lane with more space for you to move or scoot up so the person behind you doesn’t hit you. But keep an eye on how much space you have between you and the other drivers. And lastly, another reason many fall victim to death via car accidents is not being comfortable in their cars. This mainly applies to new drivers but can also be directed towards experienced drivers. Let’s look at an example: when you are riding a bike with a body full of nerves, do you succeed in trying to ride the bike? Nine times out of ten, you would be falling and scraping your knees to the bone like crazy. The same notion applies to when you’re driving. If you allow your nerves to take control, you won’t be in your right mind to drive. You’d become highly prone to crash into others on other things. So, to prevent such anxiety, it would be best to practice driving. Get comfortable with your car and how it moves, and then from there, you can make baby steps until you make it to driving through the big roads. From then on, you’ll become more comfortable driving because of consistent practice. For new drivers, it would also help to have an instructor that makes them feel comfortable while driving. Driving with someone who constantly yells at you for the things you messed up on while practicing doesn’t make you a better driver; it creates an anxious one. So practice with someone who teaches you essential driving habits and skills and makes you feel comfortable while driving.