Safety in Numbers

Most people already know that around 34,000 people die from car crashes every year. They’re all statistics. People learn about car safety, get taught about it in schools, get told by their parents to drive safely and do everything they could possibly say to keep their children safe. Yet, no one really cares about it. Though, eventually, these children do get scared. They don’t want to be a statistic like that. No one does. Despite this, down the line they don’t care anymore, after being told repeatedly, they think they know everything, and then don’t give safe driving a second thought. “I’m not going to be a statistic.” Or “I know what I’m doing” You never know, and you’ll never know if you’ll become a statistic. As a passenger or a driver, due to a drunk driver or someone just being careless, you’ll never know, ever.

My grandfather was involved in a car crash some years ago. He didn’t die, and I’m incredibly grateful for that. Though he was injured and had to use a cane for a while. I believe that the other driver was alright as well. I’m grateful that both parties were okay, regardless of this, it still scared me. I knew that they were both okay, but the fact that my grandfather was injured I had this mindset where I believed that “My grandpa can’t get hurt because I’ve never seen him hurt before” A very childish mindset of mine, but I was still a child, and when I was a child, I realized that anyone could be a statistic one day, even me. I could die because of someone else’s mistake, just like anyone else.

Drivers’ education is particularly important, not only to keep others safe, but also to reduce the likelihood of an accident occurring. Drivers ed was taken out of schools, and this has affected me, and many others as we must learn how to drive from our parents, which isn’t a bad thing, but some student drivers may not know things that others do know, and it could cause a crash. Drivers’ education could reduce the number of deaths in ways that people can’t imagine. Certain steps that should be taken could be: Making Drivers ED a required course for teenagers and/or college students. I believe that this could help students get accustomed to driving at an early age as well as help lift the burden on parents or caregivers that may not have the time to teach their children how to drive. When people do learn from their parents or caregivers, they’re all told relatively the same things yes, but if future drivers were told more, or given the proper education to drive properly and keep themselves and others safe, then maybe the number of deaths could drastically drop. Simply implementing drivers ed back into schools could reduce the number of deaths, as said before, future drivers would have more information granted to them.

Another step could be to promote defensive driving practices. I have been driven everywhere for as long as I can remember, and I know what defensive vs offensive driving looks like. Defensive drivers tend to try and avoid crashes, as well as making sure to take everyone into consideration, while offensive drivers tend to care about what they’re going to do, and how they’re going to do it. They don’t take others into consideration and tend to do what they want when they want. I’ve been a passenger of both types of drivers, and they have very drastic differences, as told before. I have never personally been in a car accident, but my friend has, and her father died from a drunk driver. Though this incident happened to a close friend of mine, It motivated me to not only make sure I learn everything I can about being a better driver, but it has also motivated me to learn how to be more of a defensive driver, and take everything into consideration when it comes to keeping everyone and myself safe on the road. We all have lives to live, and I want to make sure that the people around me at least make it home for another day. They could have families, or siblings to go home to, or they could simply just want to go home after a long day. I don’t want to ruin that for people like others do. One last suggestion I have is to enforce traffic laws. I believe that drunk and reckless drivers only do what they do because of the fact that driving isn’t really monitored. There are laws in place to keep people from driving irresponsibly, but it doesn’t really stop people. The police are only involved when it’s too late, or when they’re checking certain areas, which isn’t enough. More needs to be done to keep people safe while driving. I believe that there should be more monitoring around places where crashes are common, like freeways. There could also be observers where people go to drink and have fun. These places cause most drunk driving incidents, stopping someone from driving home after a night of fun could prevent a crash altogether.

I believe that people could take these steps personally to stop crashes from happening in general. I’m currently learning how to drive, and I believe that even after I get my license, I will practice making sure that I am 100% ready to drive and can keep others safe while I am on the road. I need to make sure that what happened to my friend doesn’t happen to others. People have such wonderful lives to live, and I don’t want to be someone that ruins that life. People take life for granted until something happens to them. I don’t want to be the type of person that takes life for granted. I’ve made it a personal goal to keep people safe. To be honest, I’m scared of driving, “What if something happens to me?”. I know that other people have this fear, and so I want to ease their mind, even a little bit to simply remind them that I am a safe driver. No one deserves to be afraid to simply drive to a friend’s house, it’s unfair to them, and other people who just want to drive a simple 10 minutes.