How to Avoid the Dangers of Driving

The majority of the population is currently driving or will drive at some point in their life. Knowing this, drivers should be educated on how to drive safely in order to protect themselves and others. In 2019, approximately 33,244 fatal motor vehicle crashes occurred in the United States alone. Educating drivers could immensely reduce the number of car accident deaths. Driver education could not just decrease the fatality rate, but also the general accident rate. Increasing driver education is a matter of saving lives and that is worth more than anything.

Some steps that can be taken to reduce driving fatalities include: consistent driving exams, increased police road coverage, and increased driving safety lessons. These things could help decrease driving deaths immensely. Firstly, consistent driving exams would include conducting a driving test for people once every two or three years. This would ensure that drivers on the road have been recently tested and are safe drivers. Dangerous drivers can commonly be older people who are not capable of driving properly anymore. It can also be people who do not follow the rules of the road. Driving exams would help these drivers to become better and work on their driving skills. Secondly, increased police coverage can keep roads safe by catching people who might be making them dangerous. Police coverage could mean placing more officers on duty to monitor traffic. Doing so would decrease the number of drivers speeding and running red lights. Creating technology to monitor traffic through cameras would be the most efficient way to do this. Placing them at stoplights to catch drivers running red lights and tagging the license plate could be very beneficial. This technology could alert the local police force and that police force could alert the driver. This could be revolutionary to the driving world. Placing these would make drivers double think before they run a red light, further improving road safety. Thirdly, increased driving safety lessons such as running driving safety classes. Doing these would help them to understand the dangers of driving. These lessons would include topics like phone use while driving, road sign meanings, and car button use. These lessons would help people to better understand driving and their vehicles. These lessons could be run for the public and it would be beneficial if made mandatory. All of these things could help roads to become safer and lessen the car accident fatality rate.

I have experienced a couple of different car accidents and they have all made me increasingly nervous about driving. I have never been in a wreck as a driver but I have experienced them with my family members as the driver. Some have been the driver’s fault and some have been caused by others. One that sticks out in my mind is a wreck that happened during my freshman year of high school. My brother was driving me to school and we were already running late. The roads were a bit slick and my brother underestimated how much the car in front of him had stopped. That resulted in him rear-ending the car in front of him. This thankfully didn’t cause a line of rear-ending but it did smash in the whole front of my brother’s car. This wreck was very scary to me, especially considering the fact that I had just started practicing driving. Thankfully, everyone ended up being healthy and fine after the wreck but nonetheless, it affected me immensely. Referring to if I have seen any friends or family members driving irresponsibly, I have on a few occasions. Ironically, my brother sticks out in my mind as an irresponsible driver. On a few different occasions, he has sped up to “race” other cars that are in the lane next to him. In doing so, recklessly broke the speed limit and put himself and other drivers in danger.

Some steps I can take to, personally, be a better and safer driver include putting my phone away while driving, keeping a safe distance from the car in front of me, and not going over the speed limit. Putting my phone away would help me not get distracted by it while driving. Many car accidents are caused by phone usage now, and putting it away will decrease the chance of that completely. Keeping a safe distance from cars will also help me. Similar to the wreck I mentioned, rear-ending people is quite common, and keeping a distance from cars can eliminate that issue. Lastly, not going over the speed limit will make sure that my car doesn’t swerve off the road or run into someone else.

Increasing driving education would immensely decrease fatality rates from car accidents. This would further make drivers more comfortable driving and, overall, make our world safer.