Texting and Driving

A strong component in road safety is driver education. As more and more people learn to drive every day, and having the drivers get younger and younger as time goes on, teaching the new drivers the correct way to drive is very important. For example, it’s like teaching someone how to solve a specific math problem. If you don’t teach it to them the right way the first time, and they don’t actually understand and learn it, they’ll be doing it wrong every single time, so on the test they’ll get the answer wrong and their grade will be lowered. In this case, the test would be every time the driver is on the road, and the lower grade is any harm to the driver or other drivers around.

Some steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths is to really carry out the “no texting and driving” rule more strictly. As much as I hear parents, and other people in general, say not to text and drive, I see them myself do the same thing a few moments later as soon as they get on the road. Also being on social media, I see a lot of people post while they’re driving. As much as I want to use my phone while I’m driving, just because that sounds “cool”, I physically am not able to. I am a really strong driver and I just don’t feel not even in half control of the car when I even just try to change my music. So, honestly, I really don’t understand how people even feel safe texting and driving. Another thing that could be done to reduce the number of deaths related to driving is maybe to increase the driving age minimum. Teenagers, including me, are very attached to our phones. Almost our whole lives are on there; our friends, social media, and even important dates and appointments. It’s basically where we have everything that we would need in a day. With more teens on the road, the amount of people texting and driving increases. Therefore, leading to more accidents, which then causes injuries or deaths or innocent lives.

I have seen my so many people drive irresponsibly all the time. My own dad is one of the examples. I always see him use his phone while driving and he drives long lengths all the time. I always say to him “Aren’t you the same person who always tells me to never use my phone while driving?” He always tells me something along the lines of “it’s important” or “I’m just doing something really quick.” To keep him safe and everyone else there could be in the car safe, I always offer and take the phone from him and finish whatever he was doing for him. Now he is getting in the habit of handing the phone over to me or any other passenger to do whatever he needs to do so that it isn’t him actually using his phone while he is driving.

For myself to become a safer driver, I feel like I just need to focus the entire time. There will be some days where I know exactly where I’m going or what I’m doing, but I will just totally lose focus on the road, even though I’m still being completely aware of what I’m doing. What tends to help me do that is listen to music. Also, I am fortunate enough to have my phone connected to my car so my entire phone will just be on the larger car screen, so I wouldn’t have to touch my phone at all. What would help other drivers become safer on the road is, I believe, just focus a lot more. Not everyone may have the same way of losing focus as I do, but they could just focus on their surroundings and what they are doing. Also, another thing that I think would really make a difference is for drivers to realize that they are not following the law and road rules. Often times, it’s easy to brush it off and say that you know what you’re doing. Although you may know what you’re doing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s safe. One never knows what’s going to happen to anyone before it actually happens, so these rules that are given to us are made for a purpose. They aren’t just there because someone thought it was a good idea to control what people do when they’re driving. They’re made to keep us drivers and everyone else on the road as safe as possible. I think it would really help if people understood that instead of thinking that they are just some random rules.