Roadway to Safety

      Each day, 114 people in the United States die of the same cause. In 2020, this caused 38,824 deaths and many more injuries. This cause is, of course, car accidents. In a single year, it is estimated that there are about 5.25 million accidents, around 35,000 of which were fatal and around 1.59 million of which caused some nonfatal injury. (Bieber) Unlike the more silent killers that populate the top of the leading causes of death, car accidents are sudden and obvious events. However, this gives us the advantage of being able to understand what causes car accidents and work to prevent them. Multiple steps, including driving education, safe driving practices, and correction of unsafe driving, are being taken to reduce the deaths caused each year by driving.

      One of the fundamentals of safe driving is the application of driver education. Driver education is the teaching of state law and standard practice of driving to someone who wishes to learn how to drive. This could include public school classes, classes offered through state organizations, or even parent-taught education, depending on the state (Hopkins). At the most basic level, driver education is the minimum for preventing accidents. The stronger the foundation, the stronger the rest of the habits around it will be. Not only will drivers be forced to learn how different aspects of the roads work and how to use them, but they will also be forced to learn the laws around speeding, vehicle maintenance, and distracted driving. In addition, many states encourage driver education with a state facility. This is due to the extensive research that goes into what they teach. For example, growing up, I always heard the phrase “10 and 2,” referring to the optimal placement of your hand while driving. However, when I began my driving education, this phrase was taught to be wrong. This was because further research showed that having your hands in the 10 and 2 positions could cause injury if the airbag was deployed, flinging the arms back and into the face of the driver. Instead, they recommended that you should place your hands at 9 and 3 so that, if you were in an accident, the airbag would fling your arms away from your body. When I talked with my parents, they were unaware of the change in the state’s education. This is a small example but still shows how the state tries to update driving habits to improve the safety of their drivers. This creates a firm foundation of proper knowledge and skills that can be built upon to create safe drivers.

      The next step to reducing fatal accidents is growing safe driving habits. Just knowing the laws and skills required to drive is not enough. One must also develop safe driving habits as well to protect themselves and others while on the road. When you look at the statistics, you begin to see that many of the fatal accidents have correlations with simple things that could have been prevented with good driving habits. In terms of causes, one of the two causes of fatal accidents is speeding (Bieber), accounting for about 29% of all fatal accidents. However, if people received a driver’s education, why is speeding such a big factor in fatal accidents? This is due to driving habits. While someone may start with a good foundation when they start to drive, they quickly gain confidence and arrogance about their skills, causing them to undertake risky driving habits, such as consistently speeding. Other habits that contribute to these crashes are things such as driving during the night, not wearing a seatbelt, or distracted driving. So, how can these habits be corrected? While no solution would work consistently, there are some measures that could be taken. One way is to encourage safe habits during education. One habit that was promoted during my driver education was defensive driving. This practice states that accidents could happen, even if you are obeying the road laws and procedures. Someone else could cause an accident through their recklessness. So, to combat this, the method encourages periodically checking the rearview mirror and the surroundings of the car to identify possible threats and acting accordingly to prevent an accident. Another method to sort these habits would be to retest drivers when renewing their licenses. This would be a checkpoint to see if the driver had picked up any bad driving habits and prevent that person from being a danger on the road. This solution isn’t perfect as the person could purposefully avoid bad driving habits during the test to pass, but it would catch some of the more obvious habits. Finally, law enforcement could punish reckless driving more seriously. This could correct the habit through hefty fines due to the possibility of putting others in danger. In addition, a separate department of law enforcement could be created to focus on traffic violations alone, allowing police officers to focus on more serious crimes. The combination of these three ideas should, in theory, help to promote the growth of safe driving while punishing the use of reckless driving.

      However, not all accidents are caused by these habits. Besides speeding, there is a second big cause of fatal accidents: driving under the influence. Between speeding and DUIs, I have seen/heard of more DUIs than speeding, especially around my age range of college. Peers admitting they smoke weed before they drive or seeing social media posts of people drinking beers while driving down a pitch-black road, DUIs are a serious problem with road safety. This is due to the fact that despite how strong your foundation and habits are, driving under the influence makes your mind hazy and unable to focus on the road. Not only does driving under the influence put you in danger, but you also actively put others in danger as well. So, what steps can be taken for this problem? Some of the solutions can carry over from the habits, such as policing driving more strictly. However, this only works when someone is already driving. The real solution is other people. While one’s mind may not be in the right place to make sound decisions, others can help them from making huge mistakes. If you are hosting an event, have people who drove to the location turn in their keys if they are drinking, giving them back in the morning. This prevents an accident caused by impairment and could save multiple lives. A driver should know when they can drive, but sometimes, they need someone else to tell them that they can’t. In addition, if you see someone who looks clearly under the influence get behind the wheel, you should call the police to prevent any accident from happening. This policing of intoxication could also prevent many fatalities that occur on the road.

      Fatal car accidents happen every day and can be prevented if the proper steps are taken. Drivers should learn from state programs to master the fundamentals of driving with the most up-to-date knowledge on driving. After they get their license, they should focus on growing their safe driving habits, such as defensive driving, to protect others and themselves from harm. Finally, people should watch for those who do not seem fit to drive and act accordingly to prevent additional damage. Even if only one more person becomes a responsible and safe driver, that is still one more person who may never cause an accident in the future.