Driving is a Privilege, Not a Right

I pride myself on being a safe driver. My friends, not so much. One of my friends has been in a car accident and almost got me into a car accident. His car accident occurred when he was driving two other people, one of whom faced permanent brain damage. When I agreed to let him drive me home the night of the almost accident, I knew about this accident and the fact that he wasn’t an extremely safe driver. This was my first mistake. My second was not speaking up. It was winter, extremely icy, and we were driving around a curve. The speed limit for the curve is supposed to be 15 miles per hour, but he was going 30. I realized this but didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want to be a backseat driver. Next thing I knew, we started spinning out on the road, and I truly believed I was going to die. If another car was coming, we would have. Ever since that day, I’ve taken a vested interest in road safety. I’m no longer afraid to speak up if I’m in a car with someone who is driving unsafely, because I’d rather be an annoyance than get in an accident that causes harm to myself or others. Speaking up when you see unsafe driving is incredibly important in stopping car accidents and reducing the number of deaths that happen on the road.

One of the many lessons my parents have taught me is that, on the road, you need to be more worried about other drivers than you are about yourself. You can control how safe you’re driving, but you can never control the speed or reckless behavior of others on the road. So, I believe the first step in increasing road safety is to lead by example. Many people follow the flow of traffic, and therefore will only speed if others are speeding. If you are going the speed limit, it is likely that others will follow your lead which will make the road a safer place.

The second step in increasing road safety is driver education. Everyone who gets their license has to take a driver’s education course, but the education stops after their 16th birthday. I believe that, every few years, it should be required that everyone retakes their drivers test. Although most people will take the test and then revert back to their unsafe driving habits, it may serve as a constant reminder to drivers of the ideal safety practices which can influence them to implement safer driving into their everyday lives. This also ensures that, when people get too old to be driving, the problem is caught immediately and they are taken off of the road. It is commonly acknowledged among many that a lot of older people aren’t safe drivers, whether it’s because of vision problems or the fact that they sometimes go drastically below the speed limit, which can be harmful. It’s unfortunate that their freedom can be taken away from them, but it is a necessary step in making the road a safer place.

Going beyond driver education courses, I believe that simply educating drivers on the terrible things that can happen as a result of reckless driving can drastically improve safe driving. When I was younger, there was a beloved old woman in my community that died as a result of someone’s reckless driving. Many community members, including teenagers, were shaken by the news and made it a point to drive safely. Horror stories like these can scare people into being better drivers, and inspire them to educate others. When people drive safer, it reduces the number of accidents and in turn the number of deaths.

One of the biggest causes of accidents is driving under the influence. Growing up in the Midwest, drinking is very normalized. This consequently means that many individuals believe it is okay to drive after a few drinks. Although my parents have instilled it in my brother and I that drunk driving isn’t okay, many other drivers think that it is. One of the ways to reduce drunk driving, other than heavy penalties, is to have drivers (especially young, reckless ones) participate in drunk driving simulations. In my health class, we attempted a variety of activities with drunk goggles on to prove that you don’t have full control of your body or vision when under the influence. Obviously, we didn’t try driving with the goggles on, because that would be very unsafe. If there was a way to attempt driving with the goggles on safely, I think this would be very beneficial to educate people on the dangers of driving drunk. If there isn’t a way to do so, I think that simply having people do what we did in health class would successfully show that driving drunk isn’t a safe idea.