Safety on the road

Driving requires a pretty great amount of skill, not only are you managing a car but you need to be aware of your surroundings at the same time. You can learn by having a friend or family member teach you but you can also learn by going to a proper drivers education class, attending these classes could potentially help minimize crashes by teaching people more than the essentials. I for example have been in an accident myself and have had other people in my life be in one too all because they were not paying attention. There are many steps that can be taken to avoid these types of events as well as to simply keep yourself and others safe while you are on the road.It is our responsibility to keep ourselves and others safe.

When you get behind the wheel, first of all you want to make sure you know how to operate one. If you don’t you can take a drivers education class where you will get a more detailed education on driving. You will learn not only how to drive but all there is to know about signs, stop lights, speed limits, etc! Having a more in depth knowledge of driving can help you and others who take the class prevent any fatalities.

Having been in an accident myself including having other family members been in one before, I can tell you it is due to them or the other person driving irresponsibly. I was about 7 years old, my mom, older sister and I were going home from running errands. It had gotten pretty late so I was feeling tired. Head rested on the backseat window, eyes closing, vision getting blurry as I kept trying to stay awake. As my eyes closed and opened I could see blurry car lights straight ahead of us, getting brighter and brighter. Boom! I’m awake, scared, mom is unconscious and my sister is scared. The girl, maybe in her 20’s at the time I don’t remember, ran a red light because she was on her phone and hit us. My mom had to go to the hospital, I got a big bruise on my hip from our laundry basket that flung against me on impact, the car got a huge dent on the side, bottles that we bought shattered, a gallon of milk we bought as well exploded, everything was a mess but all is well now of course. Although not as bad as others, take my experience as something to learn from.

Ways to avoid anything like this happening is by one the most obvious, not drinking if you know you are going to drive. Getting a designated driver who you know will keep their word and not drink to be able to get you and themselves home. Get an Uber or call a parent/friend. There are always people around you that care for your safety that rather pick you up at any given moment than let you drive under the influence. Also never use your phone while operating a car, you don’t want any distractions. Speaking of distractions, do not allow the people in the car with you to distract you either. That goes for arguing, getting or giving something to the person in the backseat that consists of you taking your eyes off the road, etc. Distractions also include distractions on the side of the road, like people holding signs for ads, billboards, light up signs, people trying to put on a show, or we’ve all done this at one point. Trying to see the gossip when there’s a cop pulling over a car or there’s a car crash, that could distract you enough from the road to make you collide into another car.

Driver’s education can be a big help in minimizing the amount of crashes we have. It’ll help people learn a lot more about driving, which will lead to safer driving. Not only are there drivers ed but there are other driving tips out there that you and others can keep in mind to help keep yourself and those around you safe like putting your phone in driving mode while in the car. Take my experience and maybe if you’ve had one yourself or somebody close to you as a sign to drive safe out there. When we get behind a wheel it is immediately our responsibility to keep ourselves and those around us safe, which is why we should always be alert and take steps to be better and safer drivers.