Dangerous Driving Causes Grieving Mothers

Driving is a daily activity that many take for granted in their lives to the point where one can get complacent about the rules of the road. The opposite is also true for teens who are still learning the workings of their vehicle and are just so excited to get behind the wheel that they sometimes forget that driving comes with a lot of responsibility and power that shouldn’t be taken for granted. I can confidently say thanks to two years of driving experience without being in a car accident. There are many ways that people can prevent themselves from being the next news story and get home to the ones who care about their safety.

I’m lucky enough to understand the two types of drivers: ones who take great care in how they act and drive on the road, and those who have been irresponsible and taken advantage of the convenience and usefulness of their vehicles. An extremely noticeable one that still keeps me adhering to the rules of the road is a good family friend of mine, we’ll say “Dave. Dave was recently out of high school and still riding the social high of having a cool car. He would drive friends around and would speed through traffic, cutting through lanes, street racing others, and being a general danger to not only himself but others. One day he wasn’t lucky enough to make it off the freeway. Dave collided with a semi and crashed into a guardrail, and flames engulfed his car. Fortunately, no one else was hurt but Dave suffered horrible burns over most of his body and skin graft scars on the rest, he still has extremely limited function of his left side years down the line. I still remember the heartbreak on his mother’s face, a woman very close to me, when she didn’t think she would see her son again. This broke me and as I grew up I knew that no matter what, I was going to adhere to the driving laws and not be the reason a mother would have to grieve her child.

I have been personally in a car during an accident, and while I can’t confidently say that it was the drivers’ fault I can say that 100% of car accidents I have been in could have been prevented by being cautious on the road and paying extreme attention to your surroundings. This brings me to one of the biggest reasons I believe that I have not crashed and that keeping your phone out of your hands, and if possible away from reach completely. According to studies, roughly a quarter of car crashes involve distraction by cell phone! This is an insane statistic when you think of the number of crashes that can be prevented annually by keeping your phone out of your hands and your eyes on the road. Now I understand that some people may be expecting a call, use a phone-controlled GPS, or maybe control their music stations by phone, and if you find that you have to have your phone available in your car I recommend that you invest in a hands-free phone mount for your car and keeping all phone activities to a 1-2 touch system so you can look at your phone less and the road more. The amount of friends I have been a passenger of these past years that not only text, call, or just browse their phone while driving but also keep it in their lap, which is the farthest possible place you want your eyes while driving, is actively terrifying. Please try to have self-control and keep your phone away at the wheel.

Another massive contributor to helping keep you and other drivers safe is going through Drivers Education. Drivers Ed is a course you can pay for typically taken after one has their permit and is given their license upon completing the course. This gives you a greater understanding of what the rules of the road are, why we should follow them, and how you can build good habits to keep yourself in one piece the whole ride home by having not only on paper assignments as well as active driving instruction with a licensed instructor to supervise and correct you in real-time. The University of Nebraska estimated that teens and young adults who participated in Drivers Ed were 15-20% less likely to get into a crash, and a massive 50% less likely to receive a traffic violation. This course’s main way of helping me personally was building strong habits. When one learns to drive with a trusted adult rather than an instructor they can tend to pick up some of their habits as well whether that’s good or bad. Some bad habits can include but are not limited to not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, not using a turn signal when changing lanes, and driving with one hand. On the contrary, however, some good habits you should build are: using a turn signal at every turn and lane change whether you believe it’s necessary or not, always paying attention to your surroundings and other drivers, and keeping a safe distance between you and other drivers.

Let’s do a brief review of ways that one can keep themselves safe on the road. 1. Always be cautious and attentive to others while driving as you never know when someone can mess up. 2. Keep your phone away and if necessary get a hands-free mount and keep phone interaction to a minimum. 3. Participate in driver’s ed, it is well worth the money for being able to learn how to drive properly and safely, and 4. Try and build good habits on the road, if you can get good habits ingrained in your mind your chances of crashing due to negligence decrease significantly. There are many other ways to make sure you stay safe on the road but these methods are what I consider the biggest contributors to keeping me, my passengers, and the drivers around me safe. Always remember that the cars around you all have people in them and that they likely have loved ones expecting them home too, don’t be the reason a mother grieves for their child.