The Importance of Being a Safe Driver

The ability to travel from one place to another is a blessing and a gift that we as a community take for granted too often. Because it has become an everyday necessity and norm it is undermined, and used recklessly. It is important to teach young drivers and aspiring drivers the dangers of driving and the risks to help prevent accidents. So many deaths are caused by car or vehicle accidents, from weather, drunk driving, distracted driving, or any other unsafe driving behavior. It is important that young drivers learn first hand the effects that unsafe habits can have on their own lives as well as the lives of others, whether that be from texting and driving, driving under the influence, or even just simply speeding. Driver’s Education classes and courses are helping to make young drivers aware of the consequences of dangerous driving.

These classes and driver’s Ed courses have a great influence on young drivers and have the opportunity to spread awareness to our youth. The steps that they can and should take to help reduce the number of deaths and casualties related to driving are small but have great impacts if practiced regularly. Like defensive driving. Teaching young drivers how to drive defensively, by being conscious of your surroundings and consistently assessing possible dangers while actively driving is a very important skill that cannot just be adapted without being taught. This keeps drivers aware of their surroundings and other people around them who may be more prone to causing accidents.

I have seen my friends and teachers get into accidents. It is terrifying, when you see it happen it’s like a scene in a movie. It doesn’t feel real. You watch and hope that everyone is okay knowing that there is nothing you can do to change what happens now. And you sit there wishing that they put their phone away. Or just pay attention. Our lives are so delicate. We don’t see that because we are a very dominant species and a very intelligent race. But for a community of people who are so intelligent, we sure do know how to cause the most crucial accidents through the stupidest of actions. When you are texting and driving and you get into an accident, it’s not death by car crash, it’s death by distraction, death by texting, death by phone. That is a choice, not an accident. You chose, in that moment, you chose and decided that your phone, your game or your email was more important than yours or anyone else’s life. That is not an accident, that was a choice. Not the car’s fault, or the road, that is your choice and your fault. It is important to acknowledge that and put it on yourself because it is your own choice. A choice you have the opportunity to make and to change.

I have seen my family members text while driving, eat while driving, and even talk to me while driving or listen to music. All these things seem normal in our daily lives but they are huge distractions that cause many of our accidents. I have been consistently calling my family out when they are texting while driving because I have watched them lose attention on the road for even a second and start to drive off. Even when they are dancing to music or talking to me they lose their focus and their steering becomes shaky and unreliable. It is important to eliminate these distractions in the car especially when you are carrying what I call “precious cargo” which is the lives of others and yourself. My parents have gotten into small accidents because of these small and minimal distractions and it is important to me that I keep my family safe and practice awareness by speaking up and telling them to put their phones away and turn their music down.

And for myself, when I am driving I keep my siblings both in the back seat, to eliminate distractions, I practice defensive driving taught by my mom and driving instructor, and I eliminate my phone my putting it in my center console and turn on quiet music that I don’t know the lyrics to so that I am completely focused on myself and the road to keep me, my family, and other on the road safe. These are the small things that make the biggest change, [practicing them everyday is hard, but in doing so it creates habits and it demonstrates the habits that others should take too. My sister who is now driving does the same things I do just by watching me do them the past two years. I am proud of her for making these habits and I am spreading awareness to others to practice these habits too. Because they are important, and so are our lives. The text can wait, your life can’t. Drive safely.