Drivers education

Drivers safety and education

How amazing would it be if when we all got on the road we knew it would be a safe journey? It would make you feel a lot safer right? Why can’t that be a reality? Well the truth is because no matter how safe of a driver you are, all it takes is one mistake from you or another driver to change that. However we can prevent stupid mistakes and make it a little safer even by one percent. Many people die each year from careless mistakes from themselves and other drivers, and I’m gonna explain how we can make it safer.

The importance of driver education is to reduce the number of deaths without a doubt. The importance is to teach new and experienced drivers how to drive safer. One way we can teach this is to put your phone in a location where you will not be tempted to grab it, distractions are a big cause for car crashes. In a study, they found in 2021 that 13% of accidents that occurred happened because of distracted drivers. Phones are a big problem with drivers in today’s world, with most people having them it is no surprise that they are a big contributor; and with the younger generations growing up around phones more than any other generations i feel like they will be more likely to look at their phones while driving. Even I catch myself looking at my phone during red lights which does not help the problem either, I need to get better at leaving it on my charger. My car can read and change the song itself so whatever I think I need to see at the moment can wait. Another important lesson I think new and experienced drivers should know that would reduce deaths is to get their car serviced every so often. Some people go way too long without getting new tires,new brakes,new window wipers, or even getting their cars checked out in general. The reason that you need to get your car serviced is to make sure your car is functioning properly, so you are not a danger to yourself and others around you. For example if you haven’t gotten new tires for a while and they are starting to bald and with winter coming around soon; it will be a lot harder for you to stop on time. Bald tires, which means that the tire is getting low on tread makes the tires prone to slide and not get the traction that tires need in wet seasons. Another example is getting new brakes, new brakes are such an important thing for your car. A study says that about 2,064,000 crashes a year are caused by faulty brakes. Which is around 5% of car accidents, it doesn’t sound like a lot but that number could be way closer to 1% if people would just get their brakes changed. I will say some of this could be caused by bad brakes. The last example I will talk about is about new window wipers, which probably doesn’t seem like that big of deal; However driving while it is raining is already hard enough if you mix that with bad window wipers you’ll not be able to see a thing. Window wipers are more important than people think, when it is raining you need to be able to see well enough to see what’s coming ahead of you. If you have bad ones it makes it extremely hard to see, speaking from experience I’ve had my fair share of bad window wipers. It makes driving much harder. These are just a few examples of steps that could be taken to reduce the number of deaths.

Have I ever been in a car crash? Yes, I have. It was in December last year, I was driving from my first job to my second job and I was running late. It had been raining lightly that night but enough to make the roads slippery, I was coming up to an intersection for a turn and I went into the inside turn lane,while there was another car in the outside turn lane. I was going too fast in general, especially with it being wet and I took the turn too hard; I ended up swerving into the car in the outside lane then I swerve back into my lane then swerved back into them a second time. It was not that bad of an accident but still an accident nonetheless. My carelessness made me go from running a little late to my second job to not being able to make it at all. The lesson that is to be learned here is to take your time, you’ll get there when you get there. It’s ok if you are a little late, people would rather you be a little late than be in an accident. I was completely at fault in the accident. Sadly I ended up destroying my moms car, however everyone was ok and was able to drive away. This accident completely changed my way of driving. I go much slower on turns and drive with less urgency.

The steps that I can take to be a better and safer driver are not looking at my phone while stopped or driving, and slow down. I believe that I am a pretty safe driver. I can only think of these two things off the top of my head right now. Like I explained in the paragraph above, sometimes I look at my phone while driving or stop at red lights. The reason this is not a safe habit is because a lot can happen in the time it takes you looking down at your phone to you looking back up, if you are driving the car in front of you could hit their brakes resulting in you rear ending them. Another example is of the phone being a distraction is you looking down at your phone at a red light and not noticing the light turn green, which then holds everyone behind you up. The reason why I bring that up is because it shows you aren’t aware of your surroundings, which is one of the most important things while driving. Another problem I have is speeding, as you can see in my accident that was a big cause in it. Speeding while driving is a big problem with all drivers, everyone thinks it won’t hurt to go over 5-10 mph over but it does hurt. The speed limit is there for a reason, it’s there for your safety and those around you. I like to think that the speed limit is based on your surroundings and how fast you’d need to react to them. Speeding makes it to where you’d react slower because you are moving faster. These are just a few things that I do that I need to work on to make driving safer for everyone.

In conclusion there are many different ways that we all as individuals can do to make driving safer for yourself and those around you. From staying off your phone til you get home to getting new window wipers. All these factors into driver education and safety. With new drivers coming into the scene each year, they should be getting taught all the safety factors that need implemed. I believe that most accidents could be avoided if everyone followed the safety measures on the road.