Driver Education Initiative Scholarship essay

Safe driving is of the utmost importance. If someone cannot drive without being safe, then they should not be allowed to drive at all. Hundreds of people die every day due to car accidents; either because drivers are intoxicated, distracted, or careless. If we want to make driving safer, we need to address these issues, and I know how. We need to overhaul our system of driving by making tremendous changes such as lowering speed limits, enforcing harsher penalties, and making drivers take driving exams every few years.

Before we illegalized driving while intoxicated, people did not think twice about drunk driving. This led to 148,000 people dying annually, that is almost three times as many deaths due to guns. Thankfully, drunk driving is now illegal, and getting charged with a DUI can put you in jail for most of your life. However, we do not punish sober drivers who get into accidents as severely, even if they kill someone. Taking drunk driving out of the equation; there are still several people dying from car accidents caused by drivers who were going over the speed limit, being distracted, or just being reckless. If we want people to think twice about driving recklessly, then we need to enforce harsher punishments for drivers who were at fault.

A terrific way to reduce the number of people dying from car crashes is to reduce speed limits. Anyone who took basic science and math in school knows mass x acceleration = force. Now take your average car driving down the road, it is a two-ton brick that is going 60 mph. You can guess that something like that is going to deliver a lot of force and can cause severe damage to a person. Obviously, we cannot make cars smaller or lighter than they already are without being more dangerous or impractical, so the only solution is to make cars move slower. This can be done by lowering speed limits, and enforcing punishments if someone exceeds those speed limits.

The last thing we can do to try to reduce the number of automobile deaths is to encourage people to retake driver exams every few years. Once people receive their driver’s license, they tend to become increasingly relaxed after a few years. Being too relaxed while driving can lead to carelessness and not being alert, which can lead to accidents. People should always be alert when driving so they can act to avoid accidents. And a terrific way for people to stay alert is to test their driving skills every few years.

I was in a car accident once, and it was not a pleasant experience. In the grand scheme of things, the accident was not too bad with no one hurt, and the worst thing that came out of it was the old van I was driving was sent to the junkyard. It was early in the morning, and I was driving the old hand-me-down van that was a few years from dying to school. All the dials in the van were broken, so I could not tell how fast I was going, so I just drove around at the speed of the other cars. To get to the school, you need to turn off the main road at a traffic light. During the morning, I was driving behind a truck that was going to drive through the light. I did not know this at the time because I could not see anything past the truck, but the traffic in the turn lane was starting to build up. When I started to turn into the turn lane, I looked up at the mirror to see behind me for a second. When I looked back to what was straight ahead, I realized that there was a stopped car much closer than I expected to be. I ended up rear ending that car and destroying the front of the van. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but for the next several weeks I was overwhelmed with guilt. I kept on thinking “Why did this happen,” “How could I have done this,” and “What could I have done differently?” I made sure to drive at a safe distance and speed behind others and to not worry about the cars behind me as much since then.

I try my best to make sure to drive as safely as I can. I make sure to drive no faster than the speed limit, have little to no distractions, reduce my speed whenever there is rain, and never act on road rage. I am not too sure that I can drive safer than I already am. However, it is important to make sure that your vehicle is well maintained, so no car trouble happens while on the road. It is also important to advise people who are not driving too safely to do so. I personally have not advised anyone to drive safely because I do not need to. But if I do encounter someone who is driving recklessly, I would tell them to slow down and focus on the road.