Steering Towards Safety- Creating a Highway Save Haven

The hustling and bustling on the roads are an everyday experience for most people. A lot of us do not think about how dangerous the roads are. According to the Civil Aviation Organization, the odds of you dying in a plane crash are one in 11 million. Compare that to the odds of being in a car crash, averaging around one in 5,000. The average person drives 13,500 miles every year, driving isn’t avoidable. We must make our roads a safe place and we can help accomplish this by utilizing drivers’ education.

What is drivers’ education? Drivers’ education is the understanding of traffic laws, vehicle control, learning against bad behaviors, and defensive driving. Understanding traffic laws is the foundation of drivers’ education. They are rules created by government authorities to promote road safety and include things such as speed zone regulations, right of way, signals and signs, vehicle regulations, etc. To get on the road, you must know the little ins and outs of your vehicle and maintain the vehicle. Being able to smoothly steer and brake are essential to keeping control of your vehicle to avoid major accidents. You can also avoid major accidents by learning against bad driving behaviors such as phone usage, staying alert, staying sober, steering with both hands, and not speeding. All of this is a part of defensive driving. Defensive driving is a proactive strategy style of driving that makes you be aware of potential road dangers ahead of time.

Proper driving education is a great first step to help reduce the number of deaths due to driving. We can also encourage those around us to be educated drivers and practice defensive driving. On a larger scale, citizens can be encouraged to be safe on the road through promoted road safety campaigns. Some local ones I can think of in West Virginia are the “If You Feel Different, You Drive Different” campaign to bring awareness to driving under the influence and the “Click it or Ticket” high-visibility enforcement mobilization campaign to promote wearing your seatbelt. Campaign advertising can be found on billboards, online, commercials, news, and radio. These campaigns also encourage law enforcement to become stricter on enforcing traffic laws. Law enforcement getting behind these initiatives helps decrease vehicle death. Lastly vehicle safety features and driving dynamics are at the forefront of vehicle innovation to reduce vehicle deaths as well. 

I have personally experienced what happens if you do not utilize defensive driving and basic driver education, full transparency. When I first got my license, I was inexperienced and reckless. My lack of knowledge and neglecting vehicle care led to my engine burning up on the interstate from lack of oil and I lost my first car but luckily, I was ok. I went for a couple years without a car and relying on other people for rides was difficult and embarrassing. I received my second car after my dad passed away in August 2021 before my second year of college. I soon lost the car 3 months later when I was emotional and looking at my phone distracted and ended up in a fender bender at a stop light. The front of my car was destroyed, the other car was fine, and I was back at square one. I was back dependent on rides. January 2022, my car was fixed, and I was back on the road, but my emotional state was not better. Dealing with grief and an abusive relationship, I got into another car wreck soon after in March 2022. I feared my boyfriend at the time throwing away stuff I had left over at his house. I was in a panic and emotional and drove to his house to retrieve my stuff. I had tears streaming down my face and my phone cord was caught on something and I lost control of my vehicle and hit a parked car that had nobody in it. Both cars were messed up and I was safe, but I had hit my head on the steering wheel and had a massive swollen lip for weeks. These incidents and a few speeding tickets from the past had led me to be dropped by insurance. I realized I needed to change before I could step back into operating another vehicle.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know responsible driving, I just chose not to. I had a great drivers’ education and yet was a harm to myself and others. After my last major car accident, I went into therapy to help process grief, deal with my depression, and learn emotional regulation. My next step was to reinforce vehicle maintenance knowledge. I started with learning how to check my oil and staying consistent with oil changes. Next, I learned about tire maintenance and am still working on building knowledge especially when various problems have come up. When I got my current car, I refused to use Bluetooth because it required cord connection and I did not want a repeat of my last incident, so I utilize CDs. I refuse to speed now and work on staying focused on the road without distractions such as my phone. If something falls, I let it stay on the floor. I wait to respond to messages until I am parked. My biggest change was avoiding driving when experiencing negative emotions and not driving if I am angry or crying.

I am lucky to be here today to share a personal account and I am so thankful that I did not harm anyone’s life. I haven’t had a car wreck in 2 years, and I am thankful. To be a safe driver you must actively use what was taught to you. These are not lessons you want to find out the hard way because the hard way can end up in death. I am very lucky to not be permanently injured or dead. To help others, encourage them to practice defensive driving and to put the phone down. Not everyone, especially where I live, can afford a car with the latest safety features or if any besides a seatbelt. I am currently 22 and I think the most important thing to encourage my age group is to avoid driving distracted, watch the speed limit, refuse driving impaired, and do not get into a car where the driver is impaired. A car is replaceable, but your liveliness, livelihood, and life are not.