Driving Safe… or am I?

Today’s world has become almost reliant on driving. Transportation is important and is one of the only sources of going from point A to point B. However, driving is also one of the most dangerous things in the world. Cars in general are responsible for 1.3 million deaths worldwide each year. While I have never been in a car accident myself, I have had family and friends who have been and have lost people I cared about in a car accident. This is one of the reasons that I firmly believe driving education is extremely important and that everybody should be required to participate in drivers education of some sort before they are allowed to obtain a license.

Driver’s education can be applied in many different circumstances. Although when you are a minor it is often required that you must complete drivers education if you want to have the privilege of driving by a certain age, once you turn a certain age (18 in most places), you are not required to take the full drivers training, rather having to just take the test and obtain your license. I firmly believe that this could be detrimental to society and to safe driving as it allows for people who might have no idea about situational awareness to have access to a motor vehicle. As someone who has been driving for two years it is important to communicate with others whenever I am driving or driving with them that what they are doing may be unsafe.

I think that this leads to the main question. What can we do as drivers to prevent deaths and make the roads safer for everyone? The question to this is not as scary as one might think however. As stated before I heavily believe in requiring everyone to take drivers safety courses. But I also think that there should be required courses every couple of years to better prepare the public for accidents and also the prevention of accidents. Looking at the resources that are provided for us now there is ample opportunity to grow as a society and allow adults and children alike to have the chance to change the world of driving for the better. Currently, many of the accidents are caused by drivers not paying attention to the road due to phones, friends, or any other distractions that might take place.

Another productive way that could ensure safety is providing education and resources to people even if they are not drivers. Accidents can happen to anybody. This includes pedestrians and sometimes people even just walking out of their house or to their mailbox. It is important to educate everybody and automobile safety to try and limit the number of injuries and deaths. It is also important to educate everybody on the possible distractions and impairments that can happen. Things such as phones, drugs, alcohol and any other impairments create a dangerous situation.

Education can also lead to support in systems that could improve driving methods. Things such as supporting research methods and new technology that can implicate new driving safety measures. Things such as self-driving cars or advanced driver assistance programs and systems can lead to a safer driving environment. This is also something that can be included in curriculum to ensure that there is well rounded education for all members of society and over all types of cars. It also can be beneficial to provide stricter lessons on signage and road meanings to know that everybody involved in driving is able to follow the provided resources on the road.

It is important for drivers to be observational and to not lose focus on the road. This is one of the main causes of motor vehicle accidents. I believe that if we can provide more intensive education and drivers training on the consequences of not paying attention then we can lower the chance of it happening. There is almost always going to be a distraction but learning how to ignore them and to keep focusing on the road ahead is the sign of a good and safe driver.

All in all I believe that a stricter education along with better access to resources is the way to prevent further accidents on the road. 1.3 million people is a number that is way too high. Although it is impossible to prevent 100% of the accidents that occur, there are ways to lower it. As a driver who is not as experienced, I am excited that I had to opportunity to take drivers education and become a safer driver.