Fails sense of security – Deathtrap: Driving

Driving home after a long day we as a family we’re turning left on a four lane intersection. My eight month pregnant mother is sitting in the passenger’s driver seat and my sister is sleeping leaning on the window in the seat behind her. We wait for traffic to go through to turn off, the light turns red for oncoming traffic and we turn. Then mommy screams and daddy slammed on the brakes. Someone is blazing through the red light and coming straight at us. The driver didn’t notice us because they were looking at their phone. Miraculously the car hit us deadcenter on the door jamb, if they had hit a few inches off either direction my sister or my baby sibling and mother would have been severely injured or killed. Our van was totaled but we were all relatively unharmed, praise the Lord! How easily could members of my family be added to the drastically rising number of Americans dying while driving. As a consequence of all these tragedies and near tragedies there is a great importance in having a proper driving education and raising awareness that driving carelessly has serious consequences for both you and the others in traffic. In this modern age of technology it is very easy to raise widespread awareness for something through social media. People love seeing and reading about drama and tragedy so use it to your advantage and post stories about the people who have died or barely escaped death while driving carelessly. Add warnings that it’s something that can happen even to you. Everyone should be more careful and not be lulled into a false sense of security. It’s foolish to think that it will never happen to you. You may not be driving under influence but if you get distracted by your passengers or your phone, you can also get into a life threatening accident. So pay attention in drivers class and more importantly, no matter how often you have driven the same route you still need to pay attention in traffic. Now the question is what are some things you can practically do so you and others are safer in traffic. The first step is to pay attention to drivers education class, to all the different traffic laws and to actually memorize and follow them all. They are not a recommendation but an order that you need to follow to stay safe. Secondly, while you are still getting used to all the rules and driving in traffic, maybe you shouldn’t  have music playing in the background or have an animated conversation with your passengers. So that your whole concentration can be focused on the traffic around you. Once all the rules become second nature and you can concentrate on traffic while also listening to music or talking to your passengers do so. But never forget to still pay attention to traffic. Just because you follow all the rules doesn’t mean everyone else in traffic will, so you still need to be aware of your surroundings. One thing though that should not be up on the dashboard or within easy reach is your phone unless you have no other option. No matter how comfortable or safe you feel on the route your driving, while you are driving is not an appropriate time to check your messages or social media platforms. With all the modern technology built into the cars you have a built in GPS and often a voice command computer so if you need to contact someone while driving you can call them with the car bluetooth. Now if you can’t afford a car with all the modern conveniences and you have to use your phone as a GPS then turn off your notifications or exercise self-control and don’t do anything else on your phone besides use your GPS. Also turn on your GPS before you leave so that you don’t need to touch your phone while driving. Furthermore, so that you don’t have to constantly look down to see which way to go, invest in a phone holder so that it is easily seeable and you can always have both hands free while driving. These are just a few things that should be a matter of course but when you get comfortable it is very easy to become lax and have a false sense of security that it would never happen to you. Put it into perspective though, do you really think those other 34,000 Americans thought they were going to die that day while driving? In light of this, ask yourself, is that text message really so important to see right this second or hashing out your argument with your passenger right then and there, worth the risk of putting your life and the lives around you in danger?