Driving Safe

My driving experience began when I took my driver’s education course in high school. I did not know anything about driving, outside of watching my family members drive while growing up. I learned a lot through the book part of driver’s education, but learned even more when I was able to begin driving with my instructor. My driver’s education driving instructor was patient with me, explained what I needed to do and was able to redirect me when I was making mistakes while driving. This was extremely important in me learning how to drive because without the patience and encouragement of my instructor, I would never have gotten the courage to drive on my own. I do think more driving time with an instructor would be helpful to new drivers. The required amount of driving is just a few hours and for someone who has never driven before, this is not a lot of time to learn everything you need to learn. I did do several hundred additional hours with my parents after getting my learning permit and they also helped me a lot with helpful information, but if a student does not have such supportive parents and only drives the minimum required to obtain a driver’s license, they become licensed with very little driving time.

The lessons I learned through driving education, has allowed me to see how others do not abide by the laws of the road. Since I began driving, I have noticed others not paying any attention to what they are doing when they are driving. My mother instilled in me that I am operating a heavy, large, object that can do damage to myself or others if I am distracted for even one moment. I see people driving all of the time, who are eating, talking on the phone, texting and generally just not paying attention, while operating their vehicles at high rates of speed. There are laws that are supposed to prevent this from happening, but it is as though no one heeds any of the laws. I would say there needs to be more accountability with people getting pulled over for these offenses, but I have found that those who are supposed to enforce the law, are also, sometimes the ones breaking the law. Encouraging use of seat belts is one way that deaths can be prevented, but until people start driving with the understanding that they could kill themselves or others from one mistake, there will continue to be high numbers of motor vehicle deaths.

Thankfully, I have never been in a bad accident. There was an incident in which I was traveling with my mother in the passenger seat and a deer jumped out in front of us. We did hit the deer and it did do substantial damage to the car, but both of us were uninjured. I attribute this to my mother’s attention to the road. The deer came out of nowhere at the last minute and we could not swerve because there were cars coming at us in the other direction, but my mother was able to handle it and turn the car just enough that the deer was hit on the side and the damage was all done on the driver’s front side of the car. Had she not been paying attention and been distracted by anything else, the outcome could have been a lot worse. We were also both wearing our seatbelts, which protected us from being thrown into the dashboard.

As I continue to become a more experienced driver, I always pay attention to what I am doing. I am not distracted by my phone. I keep both hands on the steering wheel and always wear my seatbelt. If I have passengers in my car with me, they wear their seatbelts and limit the distractions of talking to me. If it begins storming while I am driving or something happens in which I feel unsafe driving, I know how to pull off the road safely and park somewhere to call for help if needed. My family members continue to educate me on safe driving, and I work had to do my part to be safe on the road. I know that as a new driver, I am not ready for all of the things that could happen while I am driving, so I know that I need to be as safe as possible, controlling what I can so that I never hurt myself or someone else because of actions I have taken.