Buckle Up!

Everyone tells you about the importance of safe driving, but many people don’t understand the consequences until they are victims of a serious crash. I have been in one accident and am fortunate to say that it was not serious but a repercussion of dangerous weather conditions. Ulteriorly my older sister and cousin were victims of someone pulling out of their driveway irresponsibly; totaling their car while the man’s car was unaffected. My oldest sister experienced a life-altering car crash while sitting at a stop light. Before she knew it, she was struck by a woman driving a car filled with empty beer cans. My sister left the exchange with serious injuries, multiple neck surgeries following that day, and constant pain because of it, while the old lady was left with minor punishment for her actions. My mom experienced a near-fatal accident when napping in the backseat of her best friend’s car as a teenager. Surgeries later, she went through her junior and senior years of high school with extreme memory loss and many days in bed because of one innocent decision.

These may seem like over-dramatic stories, but they are all true; each happened because of unsafe driving habits and careless behaviors. Stories like these need to be shared for people to understand the truth of reckless driving, and to understand better why driving safety is so prominent. Driving is a significant opportunity to take part in, as long as it is a skill used properly; behind the wheel, you have to realize that you are in control of a 4000 lb vehicle on wheels and responsible for your life and anyone in your car. If you do happen to get into an accident, no matter whose fault it is, more than just one person will be affected, people involved, as well as drivers who weren’t. It is critical to be aware of what is going on around you at all times to try to avoid risky situations and ensure your protection. Driving safety is often overlooked because it is talked about so much, yet, people might not realize that it could save someone’s life one day.

Get in your car, lock the doors, seat belts on, phone away, and no distractions. To reduce deaths from driving incidents, you have to sacrifice comfort for safety. Music doesn’t have to be banned from a car but, when it restricts hearing and interferes with driving quality it should be substituted with something less distracting. Also, don’t discount the safety of a seatbelt; you can look away from the road for a moment and it could be the moment your seatbelt keeps you from flying out of a car. A distant cousin of mine died in a car accident because her friend was driving recklessly, the car flipped and she didn’t have a seatbelt on; three of five people in that car died. Simply buckling up for a car ride can be the choice between life and death if you know it or not. Whether it is a two-minute or two-hour drive it should be a habit to buckle up without having to think about it. Besides physical safety, emotions should also be taken into account considering the kind of effect they can have on how someone drives. Extreme joy, anger, despair, sadness, and anxiety can alter the quality and confidence when driving. This can also cause insecure driving conditions, creating potential speeding, unpredictable decisions, or spontaneous shifts when driving. Although many variables can change the number of vehicle-related deaths, there will never be anything specific to make someone completely safe, so doing anything you can to make a drive as safe as possible should always be the number one priority.

When driving, to make my trip as safe as possible, I comply with the rules of the road, making sure everyone including myself has a seatbelt on, keeping any music low enough to be able to hear my surroundings, and making sure no one in my car is creating a distraction for me. I also employ my passengers to manage the controls, music, and anything else that might take my attention away from driving. Likewise, when I am the passenger in someone else’s car I offer my services as the map reader, and DJ, handling the controls, keeping everyone in the car in command, and doing my best to keep the driving environment safe from within the car.

Driving should be something that everyone aims to make as safe as possible for both themselves and other drivers, and despite not always having control of a situation you should do anything you can to prevent severe accidents. Owning a car gives you freedom but an even bigger responsibility; it should not be taken lightly. Considering everything that can happen while being in a car, it is a privilege to own one or to drive at all. Driving is not something that should be taken for granted because it could all end within a moment, so buckle up!