Ways to be a Safe Driver

Imagine you’re driving it’s a peaceful calm evening. Not many people are on the road. You’re about to turn off when all of a sudden a car hits you from behind. Many car accidents happen in the world. There are now more deaths from car crashes than there were deaths of Americans from the Vietnam war. There are many ways to be a safe and educated driver.

Firstly, drivers education can help teach the rules of the road. I took driver’s education because my mom thought it would help me and it did. It taught me the rules of the road and what to look out for. It gave me a head start and helped me learn how to drive safely and calmly. It taught me what to do in case of emergencies. Most importantly it taught me the official rules of the road and I was taught by a professional. “During their first year of driving, the group who took driver’s ed had significantly fewer accidents and traffic tickets than the group that logged driving hours without formal driving instruction.” (Driver’s ed significantly reduces teen crashes) Getting professional’s advice can go a long when driving. It teaches you the official rules not just what your parents teach you.

In addition to driver’s education one very important step we can do to reduce deaths is to get off the phone screens. Phones can be a very distracting part about driving because when you drive and text you are most likely more focused on your phone than the road. “…the numbers are increasing to the point where more people are dying from texting and driving than there are from mass shootings.” (How Many People Die From Texting and Driving?) If the problems getting so bad that it’s worse than mass shootings we need to fix it. If we get rid of phones and texting on the road we can help reduce the amount of deaths on the road.

For one thing my family has dealt with a car crash and it was scary for us. We were coming back from a vacation it was raining pretty bad. We had our camper towing behind us on the way home. My dad was driving and keeping a reasonable speed for that type of weather but what we didn’t know was that there was a lady swerving and driving out of control. What happened next was she ran into our camper. The camper got flipped over luckily for us my dad knew how to stay in control of the situation and he got us stopped safely and quickly. The cops arrived to help all of us out. We got everything under control and returned home. A few days later we found out what caused the crash. The lady that crashed into us had no license, and was on her phone. My family was just happy we survived and unscathed. That incident though made me realize how dangerous the roads can be.

Furthermore, a safe way to make sure you and your passengers are safe is to establish ground rules for your car. Some of the ground rules I have for my car is when it’s dark no bright phone screens are allowed. That way I can tell if a car’s behind me and the phone screens won’t trick me into thinking that. No sudden loud noises when I’m driving because if there is a sudden loud I would think something’s wrong with my car. I also make sure my phone is out of reach from me. So I won’t even think about grabbing my phone because if it is out of reach there’s no point of trying. “ Research indicates drivers using handheld and hands-free phones only see about 50% of all the information in their driving environment.” (Technology Can Reduce Cell Phone Distracted Driving) I know for a fact that I will get distracted easily with my phone. That’s why I never touch my phone and don’t have a hands-free system. The kind of ground rules you have depend on the kind of driver you are. With me I try to get rid of unnecessary distractions that I can control so I can keep me and my passengers safe. Whenever I drive I know I need every other distraction that can be controlled gone. If I can prevent something I will prevent it.

There are many ways to be a safe and educated driver. So just remember when you are on the road whether it be a busy highway or a calm country road is to keep yourself safe and your passengers safe too.