Rules of the road

Brook Bourne

Troy, PA

Driver education is very important, as you can learn many rules, factors, and dangers when becoming a new driver. Driver education can teach you all the rules of the road so you can keep not just yourself, but other drivers safe as well. The more knowledge you have on the road, could cause less accidents or dangerous incidents. Every single day, 29 people die from motor vehicle accidents. For new drivers, being on the road can be intimidating or very nerve wracking, so knowing rights and wrongs on the road can benefit you or others from being hurt. In drivers ed you learn things such as dangers of distracted driving, what road signs mean, illegal vehicle modifications, seatbelt laws, illegal factors and so much more. Taking a driver’s education course is very important to learn ways to try and stay safe on the road.

In addition to driver’s education, the number of deaths each day from motor vehicles is very high. In 2019, 8.5% of people died from distracted driving. Many people are on their phone while driving, which is very distracting. Although this is not the only type of distracted driving, it is one of the top causes. Some other examples of distracted driving could include the number of people in your car, the music in the background, having headphones in and so many more. There are a few steps we could take to lessen the number of deaths from distracted driving. Some steps include, not having a group full of people, instead maybe just 1 or 2 friends or family members. Another step could include keeping your phone in a place in the car where you will not be able to reach it to be on it. The last step we could take is keeping music at a low, calm level and never wear headphones as you may not be able to hear anything else such as sirens, or even your car making an odd noise.

I personally was in a very scary car accident 2 years ago. Me and 3 of my other friends were on our way home one night around 9:30, we had gotten onto a back road where it was gravel. We ended up going too fast around a corner and hit gravel and ended up flipping 3 times. I fractured my ankle and ended up with a concussion as well. It was one of the scariest moments of my life and my aspect on dangerous driving has changed ever since that day. Anything can happen in the blink of an eye, and I am lucky to have walked away with minor injury like I did. Everyone should spread awareness about the importance of safe driving whenever possible.

There are a few steps I could take to become a safer driver and be able to help others be safe as well. One of those steps including abiding by all traffic laws. Examples of this could be always stopping at stop signs, always looking both ways, driving the speed limit and so many more. Another step I could take to become a better driver could be limiting my distractions as mentioned previously. The less people, the volume level of my music, and my devices being put in a non-reachable place could help lessen my chance of dangerous driving.