Stay Safe, Students!

There are so many reasons why you need to be careful while driving. You never know when you could be driving around someone who is uneducated on the road, so you should try to look out for others as well. I have seen some awful things happen on the road, and I have a great example why it is so important to be safe and self aware. During May of last year, my brother was supposed to go to his friend’s house for a sleepover at around ten at night. As he had just pulled out of the driveway, two men on a quad crashed into him while he was trying to play music on his phone. They had their lights on, and were riding illegally on a quad in the middle of the road, coming straight at my brother. My brother could obviously see the lights out of the corner of his eye, but he assumed it was a car since the lights were just as bright as a regular car. Even though the quad was in the middle of the road, he thought it was on the other side of the road or he would’ve moved if he was not on his phone. The quad was going at about forty miles per hour and the front side of my brother’s car had been damaged. The man on the back of the quad, behind the driver, had completely flown off of the quad when they crashed into my brother. Thankfully, my brother was ok even though his car really wasn’t. If my brother had been paying attention and was off of his phone, he would have been able to honk and swerve, avoiding a big accident. An easily fixable thing like trying to turn on music while driving could have been easily avoided. I immediately asked my brother after the accident why he did not just turn on the music in my driveway and he didn’t even have an answer. It was a big learning lesson for my brother, and my parents for when they are driving. Phones are a big part of my generation, I mean kids my age can’t go a second without their phone. A stupid mistake can destroy your life, thankfully my brother didn’t have it as bad as some others. I mean he ended up going to his friend’s house because my mom dropped him off after he finished talking to the cops. This year I can drive and even at school in the morning, people are so reckless when they are just trying to drop their kids off, or students coming in trying to rush to their parking spot. I have witnessed multiple minor accidents at my school’s parking lot. Most of the reasons why there have been accidents in the parking lot have been because the driver wasn’t paying attention to the road and was on their phone and adjusting the radio. I also know someone in my grade that was in an accident because they weren’t properly teached how to drive by their parents when they had their permit. Even though they did their six hours, driver’s education and written test in school, it’s usually just not enough for someone to be driving on the road. You really have to get out there and get experience with other people helping you, or you won’t know what to do and you can cause an accident. Everyone should be able to get experience with an experienced driver after they have their permit, and should be taught to always stay focused on the road first. A majority of accidents are caused by stupid mistakes that easily could have never even happened. You should always try to avoid an accident by focusing only on the road and everything around you while driving. I have a friend that crashed into someone while they were driving because they were taking out a cigarette. I don’t even know what they were thinking, if you need to do things then you need to pull over. Or if you can’t pull over at the moment then you should wait until you can actually pull over if you want to avoid an accident. It’s super important that people learn how to behave on the road properly because they will lose their license and it could cost them their lives and others as well. There will always be people that are distracted, but by being aware you are able to stop yourself from being harming and hopefully save others as well.