DMV Scholarship Essay

I have been driving for roughly seven years as I did not get my license until I was eighteen years old, but from day one I have always considered myself a safe driver. I took a defensive driver’s course in 2017 as well to help lower my insurance. I also began riding motorcycles in 2021 and took the motorcycle course to get my license.

While driver education is quite important, practicing what you learn and being ever vigilant while driving is the key to reducing the number of deaths from driving. Similar to how you practice for a sports game or studying for a test, it is very important to implement what is taught in driver’s education classes. Personally, I feel that many people forget that driving is a privilege, not a right, and people abuse this privilege with carelessness, recklessness, and little concern for their safety or that of the others on the road.

Today, there are also too many distractions in vehicles that lead people to not pay attention while they are driving, like new technology in vehicles, other passengers, the radio, food, drinks, cell phones, and many other items. While most distractions in vehicles are unavoidable, there are plenty that can be kept at arm’s length. The most common subject that people talk about when it comes to distracted driving is cell phones. According to a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 39,508 fatal accidents, 3,211 being distraction-affected, and 377 of the distraction affected crashes reported cell phone use being the distraction. The study also found that the age group with the highest number of drivers involved in fatal crashes was the 25 to 34 group, with 13,200 people out of the 60,904 for that year, coming out to 22%. Out of the 13,200 drivers, 820 of them were reported to be distracted at the time of the crash, making up 25% of the total number of all distracted drivers that year (National). The best ways to reduce the number of fatal car crashes can be relatively simple. One recommendation I always hear is to turn off cell phones once in the car or before you leave. If a driver has to use their phone for navigation, set the route in advance, the best being before the driver enters the vehicle. If the route is set while in the car, do it while the car is in park either in a parking lot or in the driveway. Also, try not to eat while driving, especially while on short trips. I am prone to getting hungry while driving, mostly after work. If I stop, I eat in the parking lot of a gas station or restaurant to avoid having to take food out of wrappers and mess with drinks while I am driving. One idea that some people can not avoid is limiting the number of passengers in a vehicle. With each person in the vehicle, not only are they themselves a distraction, but they have their own distractions with them that can also cause inattentiveness for the driver. Another point that some people do not remember is to set all of your mirrors, seat, steering wheel, radio, and air conditioning before you leave, especially if it is an unfamiliar vehicle to you. Not only is it uncomfortable to drive a vehicle that is not set to your liking, but it is dangerous to adjust different things while driving as it can also distract you, but it can also change how a person is able to operate the vehicle.

I have been in two accidents in my life, once in 2020 and again this year, 2023. The first accident, I had a driver swerve across a three lane highway from the right lane and into my front right quarter panel while I was in the left lane. The driver not only was distracted by his passenger when he hit me, he was also uninsured! My father had to help me pay for the repairs and it also negatively affected my insurance at the time. The other time I was in an accident was this past April. I was traveling to another state, my destination being over an hour away. It was rush hour at a busy highway intersection and I was traveling in the right lane because I was about to exit. All of the sudden, the car in front of me swerved into the left lane because they did not realize that the vehicle in front of them was moving at a much slower speed than they were. Due to this, I had to brake hard, and a young gentleman who I saw merge onto the highway behind me did not see me braking and he was not able to stop in time. Luckily in both accidents, no party was injured, but in each case there were some distractions going on. The first accident, the driver and passenger were arguing which caused the driver to recklessly swerve across a highway and hit me. The second accident was in heavy traffic in which most drivers were trying to be as cautious as possibly. The young man who hit me was not speeding, used his turn signal, and merged at the speed of traffic. I was already slowing down due to knowing that the area I was approaching was common for traffic to slow down, but my vision of the vehicles in front of me was blocked by the car that had swerved at the last second.

The best advice I have ever heard when it comes to becoming a better driver actually came from my motorcycle course when group rides are discussed. It is not uncommon that when a group of friends get together, sometimes there is peer pressure to want to ride as fast and hard as possible. The issue that comes from this is that some riders are at different riding skills and what one rider may be capable of, another rider may not be able to keep up safely. So in the case of group rides, it is taught to ride your own ride and to get where the group is meeting as safely as possible, not as fast as possible. Sometimes I struggle with this and allow other drivers to influence how I am driving, hence the one time I received a speeding ticket while I was on my motorcycle. I have to remind myself sometimes that I will get to where I am going, no matter what everyone else is doing on the road and to drive my own drive, focusing on paying attention to what others are doing and keeping my owns on the road and my hands and feet ready to react for something that is out of place.