Why Defensive Driving is Important

Driver Education is the most important step towards reducing deaths due to car accidents. Annually about 40,000 people die in the USA due to fatal car collisions, with 42,512 deaths in 2022 (snapshot). The number in recent years has been steadily climbing, and are due to modernizations such as smartphones and handheld electronics. These crashes are largely due to problematic behaviors that are largely preventable, such as not wearing a seatbelt, driving over the speed limit, texting and driving, and driving under the influence. Each of these behaviors are addressed in Driver Education courses in very detailed and professional presentations. I have personally been in a Maine State Driver Education course, which had employed the use of drunk simulation goggles and a driving simulator in order to detail how disoriented you would be under the influence and what the outcome could be driving in that state. The illustration is compounded with a segment where the simulator has you attempt to text and drive as well. The outcome among the students is never good, they crash into walls very quickly in both scenarios. This alone shows what the dangers are of doing either action. It makes driving almost scary with the consideration that someone else could be doing these on the road.

However, there are many habits that exhibit defensive driving that can be followed to reduce risk of becoming involved in a car crash or causing one. The obvious ones previously addressed are the easiest steps to prevent causing a crash. Wear a seat belt, drive the speed limit or slower if weather permits, do not use your phone and drive, and don’t drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs of any kind. Additional steps to avoid collisions involve awareness of your surroundings. In the Maine State Drivers Education, it is taught that the best practice of awareness is to scan far ahead where you are going, sweeping your vision left to right as you drive along. Make sure you have proper spacing fromwa your surroundings to allow as much time to respond as reasonably possible. This can be done by maintaining three to five car lengths of space from your vehicle to anyone in front of you. Always check your mirrors as you scan around, in order to increase safety to you and everyone around you. With proper awareness of what is in front of you as well as behind will allow you to react to someone else who might have made some mistakes and allows you to give them a window to redirect their course or slow down. It is also important to stay up to date on all the driving laws in your state, and use blinkers to designate when you are going to turn. Sometimes, you can follow all of these steps and an accident is still unavoidable.

When I was in High School, my family had pulled our Jeep up to our house’s driveway and an oncoming car prevented us from turning into our driveway before needing to stop in the road. We are on a residential street so this is not uncommon to happen on this road. There was a truck driver who had turned on to the street and begun to accelerate towards the back of our vehicle as we stopped with our blinkers on and brake lights working. What had happened was the driver of this truck was texting and driving as he brought his truck to the speed limit on the road. He had shown no remorse for the crash after we had been pushed over 50 feet down the road and into a ditch as he asked us if we could call his phone immediately after the crash, not once did he ask if everyone was okay. If our Jeep had not had a rubber tire on the back door of it, the crash would have been fatal for me and two other passengers. The worst part of all of this story is that I still see people text and drive almost daily, especially among my classmates at college. My friends even have this problem, they can’t wait until they reach their destination ten minutes away before pulling out their phone and responding to a text or video chat. It is a problem that my generation tends to struggle with most. I know I also struggle with driving safely sometimes, I get what the temptation is to drop some of these safety habits.

The temptation to drive faster, it’s fun, it gets you to your destination faster. It is a struggle every time I am stuck behind someone going 10 miles per hour under the speed limit to not speed the second they turn out of my way. However, we all need to react positively towards our friends when they abide by the law and drive safely. We romanticize speeding and driving irresponsibly too much. I intend to make sure my friends know that texting and driving makes me very uncomfortable, and to commend them when they acknowledge this and begin to not do it. The first step is acknowledging the problem, and making a change. I intend to hold myself more accountable to the speed limits, and begin practicing better awareness using mirrors and looking over my shoulders when needed.