Educating Drivers

I think that it is important to teach drivers how to drive effectively because it will reduce the amount of deaths. One of the most dangerous things a person can do in their life is get into a car. Car crashes can happen so fast and that is why people need to be educated on how to handle certain situations. If drivers are more educated on how to drive safely then they will be less likely to drive recklessly. This will lead to less crashes that are fatal. Most crashes happen because a person thinks that they are safe to do a maneuver that they really aren’t safe to do. Being extra careful in cars is a huge responsibility that lots of people are not ready for.

Something that can be done to reduce the number of deaths related to driving is giving more speeding tickets. No one likes to get tickets, but when a person is going really fast it can be harder to judge other cars. Freeway crashes are the most fatal and that is because the car runs into another going really fast. If the state gave out more tickets for people going extremely fast on highways then most people would be less likely to speed. I15 is one of the most known highways in our state and it has lots of crashes every day making it the most dangerous road in Utah. (“Top 5 Most Dangerous Roads in Utah – The Advocates”) Putting more cops on this road will help decrease the amount of speeders leading to less crashes.

Another thing that can reduce deaths related to driving is driver awareness. If there is a person walking on the side of the road the driver should acknowledge that. One thing that keeps people distracted is their phone. When a person is looking at their phone they can not be driving at the same time. It has been proven that you can only focus on one thing at a time, there is no such thing as multitasking. The person is really just switching between each task one at a time. (Wichmann) This is really dangerous because driving accidents can happen so fast that there is no time to react. Being more strict on phones while driving will probably reduce the amount of deaths that happen. This way the driver has to be aware of their surroundings and not have any distractions.

I have never been in a car crash but have seen other ones happen. I saw a crash on the freeway once that happened to the car right next to me. The car in the far right lane was merging and decided to not look in their blind spot. They hit another car while trying to merge, which caused lots of cars to spin. Luckily we had just missed the wreck but it was really bad for the people behind us. This wreck was not fatal but could have been prevented with some simple education for the person trying to merge. It is the merging person’s responsibility to merge safely. No one has to get out of your way because you do not have the right of way. A person should always look in their blind spot to make sure that there are not any cars they could hit.

I have been in cars where people drive irresponsibly. One time we were going to a family dinner and my dad was driving 15 over the speed limit on a road that not many people live on. We might live in the middle of nowhere but that was no excuse to break the law and drive extremely fast. The faster the car gets the harder it is to control what is going on with the car. Driving irresponsibly can cause serious injury or death to the driver and anyone nearby. (“How to be a safe and responsible driver”) It is always best to just drive safely no matter what location a person is in.

I can take steps to help me drive better by realizing my surroundings more often. I drive a 1977 CJ5 and it is really hard to not look at everything around me. The car is open and has a gap in the steering wheel. This gap can not be fixed and it has taken a long time to get used to turning because of it. I can’t really look at my phone while driving because if I have to stop it takes more time than a regular car. Knowing when to brake is really important in cars like that because you never know when you are going to need to suddenly stop. There are so many things that have to be done in old cars for them to just work. Manual cars require skills and knowing what is going on to operate. These cars are not easy to drive but with proper training and attentiveness they are fun.

I have become safer on the road through fixing the speedometer in my car. It hasn’t worked for over 30 years when I got the car. Then me and my dad decided to fix it so that I would know how fast I was going. This makes me more safe because I can now gauge how fast I am going to make sure that it is not extremely fast. We also installed seat belts that are more protectable if I ever do get in a crash. They probably wouldn’t do much but at least they are there. I would rather just be super alert when driving that car so that there is no chance of getting in a crash in the first place.

Overall driving is really dangerous. It continues to get more dangerous when people do it uneducated. There are lots of things that people can do to prevent these fatal crashes but some people will not take the time to do it. These are the people that need to learn the most. People are always going to drive recklessly but if people can convince them to not do it as often it would save so many lives with just one simple act.