The Weight of the Wheel: Driving with Purpose and Responsibility

Right after my day ended at kindergarten, my mom was there to pick me up. Excited to finally see my mom, we both got in the car which was parked outside. One of my teachers in kindergarten called my mom over and she stepped outside the car. As I saw my mom walking to the school, I felt a rigid impact behind my head. My mom yelled “The kid! The Kid!” Next thing I know a few men helped open the damaged door and managed to get me out. My head was thudding, and I was heavily in pain. I remember hearing indistinctly “get him water!” and I saw one girl rushing with a water cup. Thankfully, I was taken to the hospital and did not suffer any major injuries. However, it is important to acknowledge the immense number of accidents in which people lose their lives, and their life is heavily impacted in a negative way.

Driving education plays a crucial role in driving safety. One of the most important jobs of driving education is that it prepares future drivers. As teenagers and young adults become more independent, it is important to have education available for them since they are new to driving and educating them will ensure they know every rule they need to be safe on the road. Whether young or old, everybody who is new to driving must learn the basics and understand things such as traffic lights, yield rules, defensive driving, and how to operate cars overall. By putting an emphasis on education, road safety is increased, and less people are put at risk of death on the roads.

To reduce deaths on the road, it is important for all drivers to make sure that they are in a good condition to drive safely. As a driver myself, I know my driving abilities seem affected when I’m overly emotional because of something that recently happened, when I am late for work, or I am just in a bad mood. Most importantly, alcohol consumption is a big cause of car fatalities, hence, it is important to analyze your situation and recognize when or when it is not safe to drive after consuming alcohol. Once in the car, ensure everybody is wearing seatbelts as they are effective at ensuring passenger and driver safety.

On the road, it is extremely crucial for drivers to follow speed limits, even though fatalities and accidents can still occur, said accidents would be significantly less fatal and dangerous. Another important aspect of road safety is to acknowledge other drivers. When I am driving myself, I have the mindset that every other driver is likely to mess up and make a mistake, which increases my mindfulness. For example, even if I know it’s my turn in a 4-way stop where everybody got there around the same time, I let the other cars go, it is better to prevent an accident 100% than you going first but knowing the other car may want to also go and end up in a collision.

Additionally, to ensure your safety and that of others, it is important to double check your car’s condition. Ensuring key systems such as your brakes, transmission, engine, seatbelts, tires, and airbags are working properly is a key step when being safe on the road.

Finally, the most crucial step to assuring road safety is mindfulness. For others it might not make sense, but for me, it is the most important rule. Mindfulness is when I step back and think about other drivers, no matter how I am feeling. For example, when I am with my friend Jonathan, he loves to speed and blast music in his subwoofer system. When me and the guys are in his car, and we are in the moment all hyped, speeding there is also a happy family of four on their way to Chick fil-a to spend some quality time, when people drive recklessly, they endanger such people. Being able to value the life of somebody I don’t know is a skill I have gained over time while driving, Even though you might think checking your social media interactions may be important while driving, in reality, it is not more important than the happily married couple and their new car you are endangering because you are texting and driving.

To understand that even though YOU are driving to YOUR destination, and in YOUR car, you have EVERYBODY else’s lives in your hands when you drive. It is up to us drivers to understand, value, and respect everybody in order to make roads safer.