Always Drive Safe

I am waiting anxiously for my friends to pick me up so we can go on a temple trip together, and it is freezing. When they finally pull up, I gratefully get in and we head off towards the freeway. Everything is going smoothly, and we take the ramp onto the freeway. We are not past the first exit when the hood almost completely detaches from the car and smashes into the windshield. Thankfully, the windshield didn’t shatter, no one was hurt, and we were able to quickly move to the side of the road to take care of it. We made it home safe, but I learned the importance of maintaining a vehicle so no one gets hurt.

It is so important to maintain a vehicle because if the vehicle is not maintained and still being driven, things can go horribly wrong. Something can fly off and hit another car, causing an accident or it can do even worse and completely unfocus the driver, so they lose control of the car and crash. Accidents can lead to unfortunate injuries or even deaths, which is why driver’s ed is one of the most important things for teaching students how to drive and avoid an accident.

Driver’s ed is a program designed to help students learn to be safe drivers on the road. The lectures in class are all about staying safe and covers things like street signs, how to navigate a road, and why it is important to stay focused in the driver’s seat. Driver’s ed also has a program to get some of a new drivers permit hours, where the driving experience is in a controlled environment where the instructor can walk the student through exactly what to do. The lectures and the driving experiences help the student learn how to be safe on the road and how to anticipate what other drivers are doing.

Driver’s ed also makes it very clear what the risks of driving are. Before I was in drivers ed, I was not afraid of trains. In fact, I thought they were so cool even though my parents did not like waiting for them at crossroads. After drivers ed, I was terrified of trains. Driver’s ed shows a series of videos about trains and how dangerous they can be. It is required to watch video clips of cars getting squashed because of a train and understand that trains cannot stop fast. The curriculum does the same thing with semi-trucks and how important it is to not cut off a semi. Driver’s ed makes the risks of driving a car very clear, but it also teaches you how to read the signs of the road, and what people are doing. These teachings about the road, if taken seriously and applied, help to reduce the number of deaths on the road.

It is important to take all the driver’s ed lectures ideas and apply them to an individual’s driving, because then everyone is on the same page about how to drive safely, and deaths are prevented. Some of the things that drivers ed does not cover, however, are what to do in hard situations where you don’t know what to do. Another step, aside from drivers ed, that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths from driving is to create and perform simulations of hard driving experiences so that individuals are prepared when rough situations happen to them on the actual road. If someone has already completed it in a controlled simulation, it will be much easier for them to stay calm and focused in the actual event. As mentioned previously, it is also important to maintain the vehicle so that no one is in harm’s way because of the vehicle condition.

Everyone can become a better driver if they keep their car maintained, follow the teachings of drivers ed and remember that education, and stay focused. A very large part of the curriculum of driver’s ed is the importance of not being distracted while driving. When I was in drivers ed, we created a poster of a distraction, and what someone could lose if they chose to be distracted while driving. My poster was a picture of a dog on a shattered phone screen with an unread text message in the notifications. This poster represented the importance of not texting while driving so that everyone can make it home safe to their pets and loved ones. It is so important to remain alert and focused while driving so that everyone is protected. There should be as few distractions as possible so that the driver can be completely focused on the road and get everyone to where they need to be safely. This includes cell phones, food, music, not being tired, not drinking an intoxicating substance, etc. Most of these things are good, with the exception of intoxicating substances, but only if done at the correct time or capacity. Protect everyone by staying focused on the road, listening and applying the lectures of drivers ed to your driving, and maintaining a vehicle to keep everyone safe. Safe driving is important, and if everyone tries to be better and safer every time they drive, more deaths will be prevented, and everyone will be happier because of it.