Safety Behind The Wheel

Driving is one of the most dangerous operations in the United States of America. Consisting of hundreds of factors to keep you and others safe on the roads. Driving and operating a car at the wheel is considered one of the most fatal and deadly things a person can do on their daily basis. Driving a car isn’t just going from one destination to the next. It takes skill and dexterity to be able to drive. You have to use your muscular system, circulatory system, parasympathetic nervous system, and the frontal lobe part of your brain.

Your muscular system allows you to utilize your body parts. Such as your hands and arms to control the wheel, shift gears, use your blinkers, and most importantly buckle your seat belt. Your feet to maneuver the gas and brake, allowing you to excel and de-escalate your speeds on the road. On the other hand you use your circulatory system in many ways as well. The most important use of the circulatory system while driving is your body pumping blood and oxygen throughout you. Without proper oxygen or blood circulation you aren’t able to focus or engage 100%. On that note you must always be 100% engaged while behind the wheel of a vehicle. Along with the other two systems you use, you also use your parasympathetic nervous system. This system is key and very vital when driving. This system controls your vision. When driving your eyes are one of the most important things. Being able to see traffic lights, stop signs, pedestrians, other cars on the road, and being able to see and react to sudden changes when driving. Sudden changes consist of an accident, cars suddenly braking, a biker swerving into your lane, or an emergency vehicle responding to an emergency. Last but certainly not least, you use your brain. More specifically the frontal lobe of your brain. This part of the brain is what is engaged when you are driving a vehicle. The frontal lobe is responsible for your body’s motor skills and dealing with higher level executive actions. Many parts of the brain are engaged while driving. Such as the somatosensory cortex and the occipital lobe visual cortex. But in this case, the parasympathetic system is used mostly, especially for fast action taking and executing the high level of skill it takes to drive.

These systems are very important to driving and are also very important to understand. When driving a car you should be aware of all the responsibility you are taking. You have your life and other lives in your hand and at stake. At any waking moment your life can be taken. And it can be your fault. This leads to the topic of how important driver education is and how we should take it more seriously in the US. Driving a car isnt a toy, you could kill yourself and others due to your irresponsiblty and incababilty to take our simply driving tasks.

Simple driving knowledge should be known to all. But the death rates in America show plenty of people do not understand driving knowledge. This is a key reason why drivers education should be required and taught before a citizen should receive a license. If citizens around America all had taken a driver class our death rates could significantly decline. With an average of over 30,000 deaths per year, caused by vehicle related accidents, it shows how driving is deadly and should be taken seriously. To help decline these death counts per year, introducing more driver education classes would be extremely beneficial. Classes teaching a whole range of driving awareness. Even teaching basics such as how to use your blinkers and windshield wipers, how to shift gears, merge lanes, use common courtesy edict while driving, wear your seatbelt, and how to park. Even these basics can make a difference. But it’s the bigger issues that need to be addressed and taught to avoid in these classes. Such as never to drive tired, drunk, distracted, too fast, under the influence of any drug, or even angry driving. These are the main causes of car accidents around the United States. Drivers taking these classes would know to take themselves accountable and be responsible enough to never drive under those circumstances. Even silly mistakes cause car accidents. Doing your makeup on your way to work, calling your grandma on the way home, posting a picture of your new set of nails on your social media, and even not using a blinker to pull into the target parking lot. Driving is not a joke. And classes teaching young and old drivers could decline death rates all around America. If these classes were required and taught nationwide, we could see a significant difference even in the coming few years.

If these classes had been taught starting years ago, an accident I was in could have been avoided and possibly never occurred. I am just a small town girl from Montana. Barely a teen at the time and was a cheerleader. Me and a few other cheerleaders were heading to a game to cheer for. We were running late and Sya, a cheerleader sitting beside me, was in charge of directions to get us to the stadium. We were running late and our driver Kiernan was in a hurry to get there so we wouldn’t get in trouble. As we took a turn onto a major street in our town Sya screamed at Kiernan for taking a wrong turn, as she turned too early. Kiernan, already annoyed at being late and in a bad mood, turned around and was about to begin yelling at Sya for yelling at her. As she turned around a car had pulled out in front of the car in front of us. The car in front of us slammed on the breaks in fear of hitting the car in front of her. But as this all was happening, Kiernan was turned away from the wheel yelling at Sya. I noticed what was happening and screamed at Kiernan to stop. All I remember is that the last thing I saw was Kiernan. We made eye contact as it happened. We pummeled into the car ahead of us, at a crazy fast speed. The crazy speed we were excelling at and as the car we hit was stopped, was a recipe for a terrible collision. I remember looking into Kiernans eyes, and that’s it. The lady we hit ended up being pregnant, 8 months pregnant to be exact. She had just picked up some baby clothes from her sister for her soon to be born daughter. If we had been going ANY faster, we could have caused her to hit her belly and kill her daughter. Luckily, she was okay and so was her baby. On the other hand Kiernan had an airbag ransack her chest and face. Although buckled, I launched forward and hit my face into the seat in front of me. Sya was just a little rattled but not injured. After everything was worked out, all I could think about was how it could’ve been avoided. Now Kiernan didn’t have a car to drive, I had tons of head issues, and Sya was somewhat traumatized from thinking it was her fault. If Kiernan had taken a driver education class she would’ve known to not take her eyes off the road and to not lose her temper while driving. Instead, she turned away from the road and out of anger was just stepping on the gas. We gained too much speed and were going too fast to realize what was happening ahead, and we collided. We were lucky we survived. And lucky we survived with minimal injuries. As lucky as we were that night, many people aren’t so lucky. Losing their lives, sometimes they aren’t in the wrong. They are driving and following all laws, but another driver being careless took another person’s life.

Having knowledge of driver education and safety is key. If everybody had taken driver education before getting their licenses, hundreds, maybe thousands of accidents could be avoided daily. Many lives could potentially be saved and not lost. Ever since that accident I was in, even though it was not as serious as other accidents, I have always preached driver safety. Everytime I get in a car, I make sure everybody is buckled up. Especially when I drive, I don’t move the car until everybody is buckled. Whenever I’m driving I make sure to be aware and never take my eyes off the road. Not to check my phone, or put on chapstick, or to even see if everybody in the back is okay. Whenever I’m a passenger I make sure not to be a huge distraction to the driver. Not taking pictures with the flash on, blaring music while music is already playing, having a phone call too loudly, and I make sure not to touch or bother the driver in any physical way. I made sure to make my parents sign me and my little brother up in drive safety and education classes. I do my part in making sure me, my family, my friends, and my community know about driver safety and the importance of driver education. Now it’s time to make this nation wide, and protect our people on the roads!