The Importance of Safe Teen Driving

I think that driver education plays a very important role in reducing the number of deaths due to driving because the more information us teens are given the more informed, we are and therefore, can become better drivers. I think that learning new information such as what happens when we get distracted, how fast we can get distracted, can create a sense of reality in our minds that being behind the wheel is serious. All too many times driving gets romanticized in our heads when in reality it should be taken way more seriously. When we are behind the wheel and get distracted, not only are we risking our own lives or even any of the passengers’ lives, we are also risking the lives of the people in surrounding cars or even pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Learning about how quickly a single life could be taken could impact many drivers to prevent distractions while driving as much as possible. While in some cases we teens still tend to get distracted but learning how quickly the lives around us could be taken because of our own doing is scary and lowers the risks. To reduce the number of deaths related to driving I think that there should be more stop lights around the country because people tend to run stop signs a lot more than they do stop lights. Hundreds if not thousands of car accidents a year are simply because someone ran a stop sign. I think that another step that could possibly be taken is enforcing the seatbelt law a lot more because cops don’t tend to pull people over all that much if they are not wearing a seatbelt and I feel that seat belts could help prevent a lot more deaths when driving. I have seen it firsthand where drivers do not wear their seatbelts when driving and that can cause them to go through the windshield if there were to be an accident and just wearing the seatbelt could have prevented the death. I also think that making sure that the roads are smooth to an extent and not having huge potholes all the time because I have seen times were someone has popped a tire in a pothole and lost control and crashed. One of the only times I can recall being in any sort of car accident is when me and my family were on vacation. We were trying to find a spot in the parking lot so we could go eat lunch inside. Someone had pulled out in front of us as we were trying to turn into a parking spot, and we ended up colliding with them. Neither of us were going fast enough to cause a lot of damage but both cars were pretty dented and roughed up. I think this was because the driver of the other car was distracted and not paying very much attention and therefore pulled out in front of us. I have seen numerous times of family members driving irresponsibly. For example, I have seen family members being on their phones while behind the wheel or not wearing their seatbelts when driving. I have vowed that I do not want to drive like that because I want to make sure that I do not risk the lives around me when I can simply send the text before or after I am driving and not behind the wheel. Some steps that I can take to make sure I am being a safe driver is responding to people on my phone before I even turn on the car and making sure that before I pull out of the parking spot that I have the music on that I want to listen to, so I don’t have to mess with it while I am driving. I also want to make sure that my phone is on silent, so I don’t get distracted when my phone goes off. Another step I could take is to make sure that not only am I wearing my seatbelt but to make sure that everyone else in my car is also wearing their seatbelt. I always want to make sure that I am spreading awareness to my friends about making sure that they are driving safe and avoiding distractions when behind the wheel. I always make sure that I mess with the radio while they are driving or do anything they may need so that their focus stays one hundred percent on the road.