Driving is Dangerous

Driving is dangerous. It’s a fact. It seems like an obvious fact when I write it out like that, but that sad truth is that most kids my age see driving as not just an activity, but as a game. To us it’s a game to see who can get to Chick-fil-A the fastest. Which guy can fit the most people in their truck bed and not get pulled over. Who can drive the most recklessly on a rainy day without crashing. It’s fun in the moment, but the second one of us takes it too far could result in deadly consequences.

This behavior is a sad reality that driver’s education aims to resolve. By going through the course kids get on the roads with all the background knowledge to work every part of the car and what to do in even the most random of situations. Driver’s education helps reduce the number of deaths that result from vehicle crashes because way more drivers are getting on the roads fully educated and prepared for the good and the bad moments.

While driver’s education is doing its best to reduce the number of deaths from car crashes, additional measures need to be taken. First of all, all ages need to understand that getting behind the driver’s wheel under the influence is putting yourself and any passengers you may have in danger. To assist in stopping people under the influence from driving, it should be more universally taught and accepted to have a designated driver with you. The designated driver should be someone you know and trust to keep you safe when you might be making questionable choices and definitely should not be driving. The number of deaths could also be reduced if everyone would wear their seatbelt. My sister likes to take off her seatbelt during long drives with my parents behind the wheel so she can be more comfortable (Of course when I’m driving that seatbelt goes straight on). It always bothers me because even my parents, who are very trustworthy drivers, could make one wrong move and she could be flying through the car because she didn’t have the belt on to keep her in place.

I’ve never been in any crazy car crashes, but I was involved in a fender bender when I was very little. My grandparents were driving my siblings and I to the hospital to see my baby sister who had just been born. They were clearly very stressed about getting there and my grandfather made one wrong move that cut off the car behind us and resulted in him hitting us. Everyone was okay, but we were forced to pull over on the side of the highway and wait for the professionals to arrive for what seemed like a very long time to my five-year-old brain. Therefore, we were very late to meet my baby sister and the whole situation just made the entire day awful when it was meant to be a day of celebration. Had my grandparents stopped bickering and calmly made their way to the hospital, my siblings and I would’ve been reunited with our parents and new sister much sooner, and obviously everyone would have been kept out of danger. Some good did come out of this experience though, because it taught me that going slowly and calmly is way more important than trying to be somewhere on time, especially when it can put people’s lives in danger.

As a relatively new driver myself here are some steps that I can personally take to make the roads a safer place. As mentioned before, I will hopefully never get behind the wheel under the influence, especially since I’m still young and learning more things about driving every day. Another step I can take is following all the laws and focusing on being safe rather than timely. I think this is a point that needs to be more emphatically taught to kids because the world has become more fast-paced and young children are taught that they must try to do everything very fast or else they’ll fall behind. It tracks then that when those same kids get on the road they think it’s ok to drive a little faster to get somewhere sooner and the next second they’re in the hospital barely holding on to life. Lastly, a step I can personally take to help others become safer drivers is by holding my friends and family accountable for their driving habits and making sure as a community that we are making our town a safe place, rather than disregarding the danger of others so we can be reckless.

In conclusion, the simple act of waking up every morning to then drive somewhere is one of the most dangerous things we do every day, but by following the law and holding one another accountable, we can hopefully make this simple activity a little safer.