Importance of Driver Safety

How many times a month would you say that you or someone on the road, became so close to getting into a car accident? On average in the United States there are about 42,795 deaths per year as of the year of 2022, according to National Highway Traffic Safely Administration. Tying this back to statistics 10 years ago in 2012, there were about 33,000 deaths per year, which is around 9,000 less than 2022 totals. The numbers are only going up and this means that reckless driving has done nothing but progress into making roads in America nothing but dangerous and scary.

The importance of driver education and safety is a crucial part to the foundation of becoming a safe and respectable driver. Driver’s education is the course taken before tests and driving as a way to inform and teach all new drivers the rules and all they need to know to safely succeed on the road. In California specifically if you’re under 18, you must complete a form of driver education prior to taking a permit test, driver test, and driver’s test. In my experience, I started my driver’s license journey at the age of 16. At the time I had just started working at McDonald’s and my mom would drive me back and forth to work, every shift. Once I got the money to pay for taking an online driver’s ed course, I bought it and began to get started. It was simple, and the readings weren’t saying more than needed and there were mini quizzes at the end of each chapter, it was all about what was read. I loved the online course; it wasn’t difficult at all and super informational. I took my written permit test, and I passed the first try! Then, as required, I began the driving lessons with a licensed instructor. I feel like this is where the foundational skills start to build, especially for drivers like me, who were new to the road. My instructor was an amazing instructor I cannot express this enough, and we started nice and simple just driving in neighborhoods to get comfortable around the wheel. He had these laminated sheets of paper that consisted of simple driving acronyms for different things. For example, he had one for four-way stops (LFRL) and it goes left front right, then look left again, then it’s your turn after them. Another example was for lane switching, I can’t remember it specifically, but basically you signal, look into your rear-view mirrors, look over your shoulder into your blind spot, then when it is safe you take your turn, or switch lanes. Both acronyms and set of skills have been such a great help at learning these basic, yet important fundamental skills in driving. Another important step that I feel like cannot be stressed enough is learning the habit of checking your blind spots. A lot of accidents occur because many driver’s “did not see that car” or “didn’t know that they are coming.” It is scary when you’re driving and then you are trying to lane change, especially on highways or freeways at high speeds, and then as you start lane changing you hear a car “that came out of nowhere” honking at you aggressively to warn you for the safety of everyone. A lot can go wrong from simply not looking over your shoulder or looking at your mirrors. I remember when I heard that my aunt got into a car accident when she was trying to merge onto a freeway. Want to know what the first thing she said? It was, “I didn’t see that car coming.” What didn’t she do? Check her blind spots by turning her head and then looking over her shoulder.

As of since August of 2023, I have been driving about 35 miles from Delano to Bakersfield to commute 3 days a week at CSUB. From my experience I can’t express enough how much these simple habits I learned still apply when I’m driving on the freeway. Day to day I will be driving, and see that one car who will just speed in and out of lanes without clearly signaling or checking their blind spots. Cars will honk at them and try to break enough so they won’t crash into that reckless driver. Don’t be that reckless driving.

Checking blind spots are a crucial step and an important aspect for road safety, that is always overlooked because of how simple it is to do. Many drivers don’t get in the habit early on enough. From my personal experience, and a big thank you to my instructor, I was taught and brought into the habit of looking over my shoulder and checking my blind spots. The more I was on the road, the more I got into the habit of checking and my instructor did not need to tell me to do it every single time. Still to this day, I always look over my blind spots and it became a mindless thing to do because of how much I got into the habit of doing so. Another important of aspect of safe driving and road safety is being cautious and cordial to the speed limits and areas that you are on, in other words don’t speed. Speeding has always been one of the big don’t when driving. Many drivers are selfish and don’t respect these rules and zones, which lead to nothing but accidents and trips to court. Being mindful of the people driving around you is the only way to ensure that there won’t be no issues (road rage, police, or accidents) that can interfere with the safety of others on the road. Road safety is important and nothing to mess around with. A lot of these skills are nothing that can’t be learned, but they are extremely crucial to learn in the beginning of one’s driving journey because if otherwise, it will lead to nothing but danger and trouble for everyone else on the road.