Name: Anna Edler
From: Salt Lake City, UT
Votes: 0
In
this day and age, driving is essential to life, whether you are doing
the driving or you are paying someone else to drive you around. New
cars are being made and new roads are being made to keep up with the
growing population. Being able to drive is a right of passage as a
teenager. But to be able to drive, one needs to get their license,
which is achieved by attending drivers ed and learning the basics of
driving. Drivers ed is the platform to which teenagers learn how to
safely operate a moving death trap. Without it, there would be a lack
of knowledge of safe driving and laws put in place to regulate the
hazardous driving, therefore reducing the amount of deaths caused by
reckless driving each year. If more people recalled all that they
learned in drivers ed about basic driving skills and followed laws
then there would be less deaths on the road. One major contributor to
car related deaths is the issue of drunk driving, alcohol impairs
one’s ability to make smart decisions and reduces their reaction time
in dangerous situations. Some studies have related drunk people to a
baby. We would never allow a baby to drive so why should someone
under the influence be driving? Drowsy driving is said to be just as
dangerous as drunk driving. The darkness of the sky stimulates the
body’s melatonin rate making people more tired than they would be if
it was daytime, due to this people shouldn’t be allowed to drive
after a certain time of night. If people didn’t drink and drive and
were more aware of how tired they are, there would be less accidents
caused by driving.
Everyone has had experience with reckless driving or even a car
accident. Once, a family friend was driving me to a rock climbing gym
and she was driving around 45mph on a side street in SLC where the
speed limit was 25mph. She approached a stop sign and didn’t notice
it, I told her that there was a stop sign, she came to a halt. And
right as she did, a truck zoomed by. I saw my life flash before my
eyes and within seconds I could have been dead. There could have been
some major damage done to both cars. I wouldn’t have lived to see
graduation, giving my parents grandchildren and everyone I know would
have been affected within the span of 5 seconds. Least to say, I
don’t get in her car anymore. No one is a perfect driver, but
personally I can help reduce the risk of an accident by being more
aware of how fast I am going and pedestrians at crosswalks. You never
know when someone is going to slam on their brakes or run into the
street. There are many problems with the ways that people drive,
especially teenagers, we think we are invincible due to the lack of
development in our frontal cortex. Nonetheless, there is no excuse
for choosing to put yourself and others at risk. Within seconds, your
life and the lives around you could be altered.
