Of Attention and Education

Every licensed driver remembers sitting through driver’s education. Most likely, this stands out as a boring and bothersome time in life. However, a thorough understanding of road laws and tips for how to be a good driver are imperative to keeping everyone safe on the road. There are far too many accidents and deaths because of poor driving. When it comes to figuring out how to stop these, there are a few things that should be kept in mind.

First off, it is important to make sure that all drivers are properly prepared to drive safely. This comes by knowing the rules of the road and understanding how to get out of dangerous situations when driving. This is why the many hours of classroom education and behind-the-wheel training are necessary. They give people a full understanding of proper driving behavior. However, despite every licensed driver going through the same rigid training, there are still road incidents every day. Everybody has learned the rules and gotten experience driving. Why, then, do we still see so many accidents? To figure out how this problem can be brought to an end, we must try to find the root of the issue.

I have only been in a few car accidents. Two have resulted in totaled cars. In the first instance, I was the driver. My light had just turned green, and as I was crossing the street, a driver ran the red light and T-boned my car. I do not entirely know why the other driver did not stop in time, but the accident could have been avoided if he had reacted faster to the red light. While he was the one at fault and, legally speaking, I had done nothing wrong, there were factors on my end that may have contributed to the accident. For one thing, I was still unexperienced, only having my permit. A more experienced driver may have been able to react in time upon seeing a car coming his or her way. This reiterates the importance of proper training. If people obtain licenses without having much experience, we would have more drivers going about without anyone giving advice from the passenger’s seat. Another factor was that I was in a lively conversation with my sister. While I was paying attention to the road, part of my brain was focused on what I was talking about, and I was unable to pull my focus away from that fast enough to avoid the collision. This is a good example of how we must devote our full attention to the road. There will always be distractions, but it is important to tune these out in order to prevent something like this from occurring.

This brings me to my second accident, in which I was the passenger. The driver and I were on our way home from a New Year’s Eve party, so it was past midnight on a poorly lit road. The person driving was going too fast for my comfort, and he was looking at his phone consistently for directions. As we went on in this way, our headlights revealed two deer crossing the road. The driver did not have time to brake or dodge them. Thankfully, we missed one, but we collided heavily with the other. The car was totaled, and the deer, presumably, was dead, but the two of us were not injured. However, this situation could have ended much worse. Although avoiding deer is a difficult task, and the accident may have happened anyway, some dangerous driving certainly contributed to it. With dark conditions, it is especially important to stay alert and drive carefully. This driver was preoccupied by his directions, and he was going too fast to react in time once he did see the deer. Had he been paying more attention and driving slower, we would have been safer.

Both these accidents drilled a lesson into me: it is vital to pay attention while driving because you never know when something unexpected is going to come your way. Wherever I go, I see people driving while looking at their phones. Sometimes they are in other cars, and sometimes they are driving with me. I admit that I myself have let my attention drift to my phone for brief moments. It is also easy to get distracted by the other people in your car, as my first story demonstrated. If everybody were to dedicate their full attention to the road, we would cut down the number of accidents we face. Personally, I would benefit by putting my phone someplace inaccessible for the duration of my commute. Along with this, I should keep conversation at a minimum while driving. I believe these two goals would help many others as well. What we must do is make sure people understand how important it is to keep their eyes on the road. Driver’s education curriculums should make sure to include examples of a lack of attention in a critical moment leading to a collision, as this would help get the idea of paying attention into students’ minds. Along with this, people should be bolder about sharing their own experiences and concerns about this topic with others. It is easy to feel as though a quick glance at a phone or a friend will not make much difference. But as my experiences indicate, this mindset is very dangerous. By raising awareness of this problem and making sure drivers receive proper training, we can help lower the number of vehicular accidents that are seen today.