How to prevent car accidents

Car accidents are prevalent in my area. I live in West Virginia, where there are many potholes, hills, and narrow roads, and accidents happen frequently. It happens so much that if it does appear on the news, people usually shrug it off unless it’s their family member or someone close. I’ve been in a few accidents from being the driver or passenger. It’s terrifying and sometimes life-threatening, but I’m fortunate to have survived the many accidents I was in.

I went off a hill by accident, my mom spun out on an icy road with me and my sister, and I got hit by a truck. After these accidents, I started to pay more attention to the streets and be more careful when driving places. Luckily, due to how destroyed our roads are here in West Virginia, I’ve learned how to navigate rough terrain. But I would have been more prepared with better driver education. My high school offered the class, but the issue was that I didn’t have room in my schedule to do it, and my friends didn’t have time for it. I was already doing college classes while in high school. If the schools required students no matter what to take the course and had more parents make more time to train their kids, it could help reduce accidents. Plus, people need to make time for themselves to get to places and try not to rush themselves trying to get to places. When people run into something, their mind tries to block the whole world, which can lead to hitting a car or even someone. Everyone must breathe and try to pace themselves before an accident occurs. And I fully understand that sometimes we lose track of time, a meeting or get-together takes longer than needed, or the alarm doesn’t go off on time, but we should try to think about others. I’m in a psych course where we are even talking about how people aren’t born with the feature to think about others but themselves first, then others. But when we grow up, we learn that if we don’t include others’ feelings and traumas, then car crashes will accrue, which could destroy a whole person’s life forever. Plus, reducing road rage will help decrease wrecking substantially. The best way to help fix this issue would be for everyone to learn the rules of the road.

An example is when there is a four-way with only stoplights, everyone has to take turns moving. I know it takes time, but we can’t have people driving in the same direction at different turns because that would lead to many accidents. Road rage usually happens when people try to show off how good they are at driving, even though that’s not the point of driving. Driving is a tool to help people get somewhere quicker rather than a means to show off how good you are at something. If you want to race cars, that’s fine, but not at the expense of others on the interstate or on minor roads. Go to a race where fewer people, such as a race track, will get hurt. One last thing that is the most common reason for lethal accidents is cell phones. Since the invention of the telephone, people couldn’t disconnect from it. People have to constantly talk, text, or even play a game on it. Phones have become an enormous distraction, and companies such as Apple have had to create a feature where the phone will go in “car mood,” which prevents a user from receiving any text messages or calls unless they’re registered in the phone as an emergency person. But cell phone users can turn that feature off, which defeats the purpose. The law has even gotten involved so that police can give people tickets for using the GPS of their cell phones or the built-in GPS in the car. Yes, GPS is an essential tool for everyone to get to places. I use it too, but everyone must remember that you are using a deadly machine with wheels that can end a life. One wrong move, either you or someone else, can end up in a hospital. People must do their best to disconnect from their cell phones while driving or turn the GPS on when they get in the car. Implanting these ideas will take time and money, but without trying, we will never know if this could help. We can help decrease the death rate if we remember that everyone has lives to live and that the world doesn’t revolve around ourselves.