The Wild Side of Driving

“It’s just a message,” “Dude, gas it!,” and “Let’s race to the mall” were all words of drivers who thought nothing of quickly looking away from the road or increasing their speed for fun. In these milliseconds of looking away and speeding up, something drastic could occur, and the driver wouldn’t even see it coming. Driving could be a tool or a weapon— it can get someone to their destination or it can instill pain in loved ones. The way that others drive, including you and me, dictates what happens on the road. For this reason, it is with the utmost importance that driver education is taken seriously and certain steps are implemented to reduce car accidents. Additionally, through my experience, I also could take certain steps to become a better driver which could be used as a template to help others.

One of the most important aspects of driving is for one to understand the power that they have in their hand. As aforementioned, driving could hurt others or it can be a convenient way to get to work on time. Additionally, just looking at the statistics (as presented by DmvEdu.org), around 34,000 people lose their lives every year to driving alone. This number is enormous when one considers that every one of these people had their own life; They had their education to complete; They had dreams of one day going on a vacation; They had visions of one day having a family of their own. However, it was all taken away from an activity that most of us do every day. By informing drivers of these dangers, it may not necessarily help everyone, but it could help those who are just not aware of their actions. Increasing driver education or awareness will ultimately help others reduce their speed, drive safer, and know when someone is driving irresponsibly. At the end of the day, we all want to make it to our destinations. Nobody wants to go to the market, and never come back.

We all know that driver education just won’t stop all driving fatalities. For this reason, it is equally important that certain solutions be taken as well to help reduce the number of fatalities. Thus I present a possible step to help prevent car accidents— software. In this day and age, the age of technology is advancing greater than our brain capacity (just look at AI haha), so why not include it in vehicles? Software is already seen in countless vehicle models where the car takes control if the driver doesn’t react for some reason. If a driver doesn’t see a pedestrian, the car will automatically stop. If the driver starts drifting in their lane, the car will correct it for them. This technology already helps to reduce countless accidents every day. Of course, one could argue that this technology could boost the issue of distracted driving even more, but I beg to differ. This is because as long as the technology isn’t fully autonomous, then the driver will still be in charge of the vehicle. In other cases such as Teslas where autopilot is a feature, this fully autonomous vehicle promotes the idea of irresponsible driving as the driver does not have to pay attention to the road anymore. As for reducing speed, more enforcement of speed limits could also be implemented. I don’t necessarily mean more police officers, but I am referring to speed cameras. In my city, there are not any speed cameras or anything related to that matter. However, if these cameras were implemented at most intersections or even on the highway, individuals would decrease their speed as tickets would be on the line. Overall, these two steps may not completely stop driving fatalities, but it is a step in the right direction.

As a driver myself, I understand what I have to do to be a safe driver. I can’t tell you how many times I have been inside a vehicle where the driver is driving irresponsibly. I understand hearing a ding or being at a red light that one wants to check their phone quickly, but we have to fight these habits. One might think that a car accident may never happen to them, but that is when it happens the most. My dad got involved in a fender bender after dropping me off at school. He got distracted by watching me walk to class. Additionally, whenever I see my friends driving irresponsibly, I jokingly tell them, “Aye bro whatcha doin’ on your phone? You’re driving!” and it does the trick. We have to be aware of what we are doing and how fragile we are as humans.

Finally, there are also a variety of ways that I could implement along with others to become better and safer drivers on the road. The first step is fighting the urge to check our phones and the urge to increase our speeds to dangerous numbers. I will admit that I have found myself going over the speed limit a couple of times just to see how much I could push my car. However, we all need to understand that it is just not worth the risk. Increasing our speed by a few times will never justify taking an innocent life. Additionally, another key step that one could take is to put their phones in an inaccessible location during the car ride. By making it so that we can’t reach for our phones, we will revoke all dangers related to texting and driving. As for helping others, all it could take is an effective ad. We have all seen ads showing the effects of distracted driving, and they are effective. These ads target the viewer’s pathos to help them change for the better.

In conclusion, driving irresponsibly is something that could be easily prevented, but many choose not to. Milliseconds could be the deciding factor if a person will lose their life or if a person will narrowly avoid an accident. If drivers understood the impact that they could have on others through driving, it would make a difference. Now, it may not be a big difference, but it would be saving lives one by one. Additionally, software could be used to help cars become safer and to enforce speed limits to reduce dangerous speeds. Collectively, all of these steps could be combined to make the roads safer slowly, but surely. We all have to do our part in making the roads safer. We all have plans, and we would never want to see them cut early by another driver.