Different Types of Reckless Driving and how to Prevent them

Driving, especially where I live, is a very tedious task. You have to make sure you keep yourself safe while also making sure you don’t hurt anyone around you. If you think about it, you’re literally driving a giant piece of metal that has the capability to wipe both you and many others out in seconds, and that’s terrifying to think about. So, to make sure this never happens, one must take precautions, and educate themselves on how to be safe on the road. This will reduce the annual death toll from car accidents, and overall make the road a safer place for people to travel on.

Like stated above, the road can be a very dangerous place. People practice reckless driving all the time, whether it be through a DUI, sleeping while behind the wheel, or texting and driving, any of these could be the reason someone loses their life. And you know what’s upsetting about this? So many of these issues could be easily prevented if people just educated themselves and thought about others. Sure, it might cost more to grab an uber rather than drive yourself home after a night of drinking, but is it really worth it? So many people are injured by drunk drivers every year, and so many more perish at the hands of them as well. People should take DUIs more seriously, and understand that they are a huge cause of deaths on the road every year. If people take it more seriously, then others will be less likely to drive while intoxicated.

Just like driving while intoxicated, texting while driving is a huge danger to others on the road, as well as yourself. When driving, your mind should be focused on one thing and one thing only; the road. When you text and drive, this means that your mind isn’t fully focused on the road, even if you think it is. One may believe that just looking down at their phone for a few seconds isn’t dangerous while driving, when in reality there is always a chance that something could happen within that time frame. Just because you only look down at your phone for a split second doesn’t mean nothing bad will happen.

Accidents on the road can occur in multiple ways. However, one not spoken about as much as the two above is drowsy driving. This is because unlike the other two, drowsy driving isn’t always something you choose to do. With DUIs and texting+driving, people are normally well aware of what could happen and the consequences they may face, but with drowsy driving, you don’t ever really know when it’s going to occur. However, the main cause is normally lack of sleep, which can be prevented. This is easier said than done for some people though, as some individuals may suffer from insomnia, have long work shifts, etc. Even though one may get a good sleep though, sometimes it can come to people who are well rested too. For example, on long road trips, my father gets very drowsy when driving due to boredom. However, he knows the effects of this, so to counter it he eats sunflower seeds to keep himself busy while focusing on the road. I also sometimes get drowsy while driving, even if I get enough sleep. Sometimes it isn’t avoidable, but either way one must try their best to prevent it.

We’ve explored 3 different types of reckless driving in this essay, along with solutions for each of them. But one major solution still remains, and it would help every single one of these chances of reckless driving go down. This solution is rather simple, and it is to just educate the majority. Of course we try to do this, but it isn’t enough. If people revisit the idea of reckless driving and its consequences multiple times throughout their life, they’re less likely to do it. One way to implement this is through programs that revolve around the topics of DUI, drowsy driving, etc. They could be every couple of years, and would strive to have people grasp the true severity of offenses on the road. However, people won’t sit in on these lessons unless they need to, so a way to work around it could be making them mandatory, or giving a reward if people participate in the lessons. Rewards could vary from a smaller sum of money to discounts on insurance. Either way, the best way to lower the rates of reckless driving would definitely be through the use of education and speaking out on each topic.