What If?

Driving is the most dangerous event people do on a daily basis. In a single day, there can be over 15,000 car accidents within a day. There are over 200 million drivers in the U.S. and about 50% of those drivers have not taken a Driver’s Education program. There was a study done by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln which shows that young adults and teenagers who have not participated in a driver’s education program are 16% more likely to be in a car accident compared to those who participated in a Driver’s Education program. Taking one of these programs can teach new drivers and even long-time drivers some techniques that can be used while driving.

There are plenty of techniques and steps drivers can learn from a Driver’s Education program such as, turning to low beam lights when driving in fog. One of the big ideas that drivers need to practice is defensive driving. Defensive driving makes people drive more cautiously and think about their next move instead of being panicked and not having a plan for everything. People need to constantly ask themselves “What if they do this?” or “What if they do that?” and come up with a solution they can execute if the other drivers do those things. Whenever people drive, they need to think that all of the drivers around them do not know what they are doing. Driving will never be 100% safe, but it can be safer as long as drivers know what to do in certain scenarios.

It’s not all about learning the techniques, but it also comes down to experience. One of the first times I was driving through rush hour on a freeway, I was frantic and nervous. I wanted to get out of the lane I was in because I knew that it would be an exit, so I tried to move over. Little did I know, the person behind me had the same idea and moved over as well, but sped up which blocked me from getting over. I quickly moved back into my lane to avoid a collision with the other driver, but ended up scraping the side of the car on my right. No one was hurt, but if I had the experience to take my time and not worry too much about taking the wrong exit, the accident would have never occurred. I had taken a Driver’s Education class prior to receiving my licence, but I didn’t have enough experience to fully control my vehicle or my nerves when I was in the middle of rush hour.

Some steps I have taken to become a better driver is to not worry about taking the wrong exit and figure out techniques to help calm myself whenever I feel nervous when driving. Whenever people ask me “What can I do to be a safer driver?”, I would always respond with the “What if…” question and tell them to constantly ask themselves that when driving.