It Can Happen to You

Brandy Hercules

It Can
Happen to You

Driving
is a privilege that many people take for granted, people tend to
underestimate how powerful a vehicle actually is. My teacher in
highschool once said that a vehicle is a weapon, at that time I did
not understand how a form of transportation can also be seen as a
weapon. Over the years I then realized what she meant by that, there
are a lot of pros to having vehicles and having the ability to drive,
but when people choose to be reckless and irresponsible it can easily
turn into a lethal weapon that can take others and your own life.

Defensive
driving is instilled into every single driving education course
throughout the country, the way we think heavily weighs in the way we
drive. Driving education is very important because if people are not
properly educated, then they will not drive well and put everyone
else at risk. I feel as though more needs to be done to prevent car
accidents even though people are not going to favor it. I know when I
was 16 years old with my permit, I was very timid and I remember cars
behind me zooming in front of me on a two way street. Beginner
drivers are less likely to abuse driving due to their own timidness
and uncomfort. I feel that when people begin to feel comfortable with
driving, they get way too relaxed and start succumbing to
distractions such as using phones while driving. To help prevent this
from happening and being in the era of where technology just becomes
more intricate each year, we should install a device in all vehicles
that picks up the radiation from the technology in the driver’s seat
when in motion. This idea is creative and probably hard to actually
create but I think it would be very beneficial to reducing distracted
driving.

Another
reason why accidents occur so often is because people get older and
tend to forget. This is why I feel that people should perform a
brush-up road test every 5 years or so to make sure they understand
the rules and how to drive defensively. Some people joke around about
being a bad driver, but in reality being a bad driver is very
dangerous. There are so many aspects that can cause an accident but
today it seems as though devices draw our eyes from the road a lot.
In New Jersey it takes an hour or so to get to the Jersey Shore, so
all of my friends pile into my car and we make our way for the beach
on a hot day. Steps I take to make sure I am driving well on the
expressway is when my friends are trying to talk to me, I just simply
ask them to wait one minute until I fully adjust to being on the
highway. People can easily be distracted by factors such as the radio
and people in the car trying to engage in conversation with them,
this is what I dont think is very prominent in drivers ed. I
never knew that talking to someone would distract me that much from
driving even when I am not looking at them but it really does break
your focus. I am fortunate enough to not have experienced a car
accident, but I know several people who have and I drove them where
they needed to go for a few weeks because of how shaken up they were
from being in an accident.

People
always think “oh im fine” or “nothing will happen to me. I know
what I am doing” but as I mentioned before, vehicles when abused
turn into lethal weapons. The driving education courses are doing
well now, but I think since there are still a handle of accidents
each year, a few adjustments should be made to prevent people from
having accidents. I really hope that people do not wait for them to
be directly affected by a car accident before they decide to change
their driving habits, for many people it will be too late and their
life will change forever.