Driving Your Life Away

In a world full of dangers, I hope to be a beacon of light and faith in someone’s eyes to convince them to be a safe driver. In today’s life of being a safe driver, I look around and see nothing but hazards while people are driving. People texting while driving, road rage, talking while driving, and even worse, not looking at the road while talking. These are among the most common dangers I come across while driving. These are just the people I happen to glance at, imagine If I was always watching. How often does this occur? The answer is all the time. Most people don’t think they could ever die, when in fact it is inevitable. One text could be the only thing between you and swerving past death. Your life is greater than any text you could be sending. Your life, your dignity, your soul… Is more important than that one message. Why risk it by becoming distracted?

There is a pandemic spreading, one greater than many wars or sicknesses that have been recognized. The pandemic of unsafe driving. Nearly 36,000 people die each year with rapidly rising numbers. last year alone, 46,000 people died from unsafe driving. These are numbers never seen before since 2014. Dangerous driving has killed more than 3 times the amount of Americans in one year, than the Iraq war killed in its almost 9 year stretch. It has become so normalized no one sees the issue, each day you hear about someone passing away in a car accident, the cause? Is almost always unsafe driving.

Being a safe driver isn’t only important for the longevity of your own life, but is important for the lifelong impact your driving can have on others. I drive with two things in mind, the safety of everyone in my vehicle and the safety of every vehicle around me. If I drive with the idea that I am responsible for those driving around me, not only myself. It creates a bubble of safe drivers. Driving the speed limit, adjusting for the attitude of those around me. Being a safe driver is important for everyone, not only you. I believe that what sets apart a good driver from a great one is being able to see that everyone has an attitude while driving and it shows through their driving. Many see cars as boxes of metal that can be molded in any shape or form. Not only is it a big rolling box of metal, but it is a part of you.

Your car only drives where you drive it, the same as your legs. They only walk where you tell them to. Think of it as an extension of you. You don’t like stubbing your toe on anything, same with a car. It doesn’t enjoy smashing into other cars. When you crash a car it doesn’t just damage the car. It damages you, a part of you is missing. When you break that car, you break apart of yourself. Your driving won’t be the same as before. This only adds to the fact that being a safe driver doesn’t only affect you, but it affects the drivers around you. When you show that you have good manners while driving, others see that. And it affects the mood of their driving, it affects their car as it does them.

So when you step into a car, think about what could happen. What are the consequences of your actions? When you get into a car you have a choice. A choice to drive with caution and awareness of those around you, or a choice to drive with malice and anger, where you are going isn’t worth taking your life or the life of anyone else around you. Your vehicle isn’t something you can or should use to take anger out on others. Just as you shouldn’t use your body to take anger out on others. You are responsible for your actions and your actions affect the drivability of others. Being an irresponsible driver might make others upset or unhappy, which in turn will make them less of a driver. In the wrong crowd, your one cutoff could snowball into a world of hurt for another family.

Don’t drive your life away. There is no need to be unsafe, for the cost of sending that text or making that risky turn isn’t worth the hefty price of your life. Be a safe driver and choose to drive with caution and awareness in your heart.