Driving Education: Intuitiveness is Important

Education about the dangers of distracted driving is excruciatingly important for the safety of motor-vehicle users. Schools, workplaces, and even public transportation rest stops are all reliable places to put posters that promote safe driving skills and habits. Encouraging civilian efforts of driving safer by putting their phone(s) away saves one of the “46,980 deaths that have occurred in 2021”. The issue is only rising due to the inability to properly educate the up and coming generations on the dangers and responsibilities of driving. The article that quoted the statement in the previous sentence, also followed up with this information, “ Between 1913 and 2021, the number of motor-vehicle deaths in the United States (which includes all types of motor vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles) increased 1,018 percent from 4,200 deaths in 1913 to 46,980 in 2021. We can stem this significant upload of deaths from car accidents from the lack of practice, classes and reliable education we have on the matter.

In the data that I found in a PDF from the article labeled as the “Overview of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes in 2021, it stated some not so shocking news. “ There were 42,939 people killed in motor vehicle crashes on United States roadways during 2021.” In this set of data, the numbers are different, with the data/deaths still rising everyday. Continuing, “ It also represents a 10-percent increase from 39,007 fatalities in 2020, or 3,932 more people killed in traffic crashes in 2021. The fatality rate per 200 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) increased by 2.2 percent from 1.34 in 2020 to 1.37 million, rising from 2.28 million in 2020, a statistically significant increase of 9.4 percent. The estimated number of police-reported traffic crashes increased from 5.25 million in 2020 to 6.10 million in 2021, a statistically significant 16-percent increase.” These data lists contain information about gender, location and time all over the United States. “The key findings that this article found from 2020-2021 are the following: fatalities and people injured increased in most categories, speeding related fatalities increased by 7.9 percent. alcohol -impaired-driving fatalities increased by 14 percent, and seat belt non-use fatalities increased by 8.1 percent. Urban fatalities increased by 14 percent, while rural fatalities increased by 4.7 percent. Female fatalities increased by 12 percent, and male fatalities increased by 9.2 percent. Night Time (6pm to 5:59 a.m.) fatalities increased by 11 percent; day time (6 am to 5:59 p.m.) traffic fatalities increased by 9.7 percent. Lastly, 43 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have increased in the number of fatalities.”

Introducing the statistics to people that don’t necessarily know the harm and the risk that there is can help them understand the prevention of car accidents. NHTSA, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration”, provides a lot of good information based on the various ways that we can be easily distracted when it comes to mobile devices or trying to change the station on the radio. They expose good tips and tricks to put yourself in a predicament that will keep you much safer than causing you to lose concentration on the road.

Reducing the effect of cell phones and friends have on the way that you maneuver your motor – vehicle is a hard occupation. Now, don’t let that sentence fool you! It is a very important job that needs to be served to protect the lives of others and yourself. The initial course of action for the real world would be to take away someone’s license when they have certain offenses on their identity, but what are they learning, but not to get caught the second time around? That is right, that is a temporary solution! Personally, it is incredibly hard to not use my phone to call my mom, or text my friend that I am five minutes away from her house, or even to change the music when I purchased a vehicle that allows a button to do that for me. A good solution to the phone problem is putting it out of reach from the driver or placing it in the possession of the passenger. For intoxicated drivers, it is very important to know that it is a serious offense when you get caught. While that is a great downfall, it also puts other people’s lives at risk with a dumb decision that you may never be able to take back if someone gets injured.

Personal stories that have to do with tragic accidents, or even less fatal accidents, are rough to tell. Gratefully I don’t have any fatalities that have happened in my family or around me, that resulted because of a car accident. My grandmother lives really close to a main street, where people like to go really fast, knowing the speed limit is 50 mph. This didn’t happen just once but twice, where there was a drunk driver, and they crashed into her fence along the road, and trailed through her yard. The second time around there were two people in the vehicle and one of them did not survive the crash ( the driver survived). No information was given on whether or not the individuals got detained because of the damage or the unfortunate death.

Taking steps towards a better future for the up and coming generations is a good way to bring initiative to change. Going on your phone and being distracted when driving is a habit that people have and need to break! Teaching younger generations, sooner before they get their license the better, would benefit the number of deaths with motor-vehicle accidents. I think the best way to help others be safer on the road is increasing the education that we give to children that are on the road to getting their license, so they don’t make the same mistakes we made!