Steps to Making the Roads Safer

Driving safely for both yourself and others on the road is something that is a big problem in our country. Thousands of people die in car crashes every single year, and thousands more are severely injured. Many of the people killed or injured are not at fault and are victims of other people’s poor driving. There are many things that we can do to lower the number of car crashes and with this the number of deaths and serious injuries.

The first thing that we can do is to increase the awareness around our driver’s education program. There are plenty of people who do not go through driver’s education before getting their driver’s license. This is a problem because driver’s education plays a key role in knowledge related to driving. In driver’s education, plenty is learned about what different road signs mean, how to drive safely in general, and how to continue to drive safely when there are weather conditions. If more people went through driver’s education, their knowledge about different aspects of driving would be much higher. This could help them to realize what they are doing wrong before causing an accident. Driver’s education plays a very key role in reducing the number of deaths in car crashes. If everybody is taught how to safely drive, especially in certain weather conditions such as thunderstorms or icy roads, far fewer car crashes would happen.

I have never personally been in a car accident, but I know people who have, and I have had a few close calls myself. From my personal experience, the times where I have come close to being in a car crash were when I was distracted. I was not fully paying attention to the road, and because of this, I have come close to colliding with other cars. Luckily for myself, God was looking out for me and I was fortunate to escape the close call as if nothing had happened. However, I have learned from these situations the importance of staying focused at all times. As for the people that I know, they were in car accidents for reasons similar to my close calls. Either they or someone else on the road was not fully paying attention to the road. It is incredibly important to keep your eyes on the road at all times in order to prevent car crashes. I know that these people have also learned from these situations and are much safer drivers now because of it.

There are many steps that everyone can take in order to ensure that the roads are safe for everyone using them. The first and most important is to pay attention while driving. Many distracted drivers end up in car crashes due to a lack of attentiveness. They are using their phone, giving their full attention to music, or something else. After losing focus for just a few seconds, they get into a car accident. Many car accidents can be prevented by all drivers simply paying attention to the roads.

Another thing that causes many car crashes, especially fatal ones, is speeding. Many of these drivers are constantly switching lanes in order to avoid other cars while maintaining their speed. Making just one bad move while speeding usually leads to disaster. Even if they make all of the right moves, if there is just a little bit of traffic and everything slows down, they can easily rear end a driver if they do not react in time. Making sure that everyone is obeying the speed limit can help to prevent car accidents as well.

In addition to the first two, defensive driving can also make the roads safer. If you are sharing the road with a driver who is being aggressive, which is usually characterized by speeding and changing lanes many times, make sure to drive safely and adjust to their style. Instead of trying to pass an aggressive driver or stay in front of them, ease off the gas pedal, slow down, and let them go by. Plenty of car crashes are caused by people competing with one another. If both drivers are aggressive, they are not worrying about the safety of others or themselves. They are just worrying about getting farther ahead of the person that they are “racing”. Many car crashes are caused by drivers being too offensive. Driving defensively and reacting to the people around you is much safer and prevents many crashes.

Overall, there are far too many car crashes in the U.S. every year. Although some car crashes are because of a lack of knowledge, many more of them are due to drivers not paying attention or driving too aggressively and dangerously. Many of our car crashes could be prevented if drivers simply slowed down and reacted to others on the road, instead of forcing others to react to them.