America’s killing itself

Caden
Sova

January
1^st,
2020

Every
year over 34,000 people die due to car related accidents, making it
the 4^th
top killer following respiratory diseases, cancer and heart diseases
according to CBS News. This means that one of America’s most
dangerous enemies is itself. Even wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan
have a lower kill count then our highways. This is unacceptable and
needs to be fixed and luckily there are some possible solutions

One
easy way to shrink down the amount of deaths is to make
transportation via Uber or Lyft easier for drunk citizens. Over
10,000 people, about 28% of all traffic accidents, die because of a
drunk driver. This number could be reduced by making the bars also a
bit responsible for letting these people drive after becoming
intoxicated, influencing the bars to regulate their customers and
making sure they stayed within the limit. In addition, if we informed
people to report drivers that seem under the influence while on the
roads, that would help stop the accidents before they happen. Another
way to ensure the safety of our drivers is to enforce and upgrade the
drivers ed programs. To many young people these classes are just like
school, and don’t pay attention to the information provided. Making
the classes more hands on, instead of just watching videos and
listening to lectures, would greatly enhance the student’s retainment
of the course. This coupled with forcing drivers to take these
classes, even if they are older, and making the time needed to keep a
permit to one full year should drastically reduce the number of
deaths due to auto mobiles.

My
family and I haven’t been in any accidents, which I am thankful for.
This is probably because my parents don’t drink, meaning they’re
not tempted to drink and drive. In addition, they usually have
children in the car with them, making my parents even more careful
and aware of what’s around them. Personally, even though I’m not
driving super late at night, drinking, and I’ve taken drivers ed, I
can still be a safer driver. There have been times at stop lights
where I’ve looked at my messages or just doze off and go into auto
pilot. Which is why I suggest listening to good music and trying to
always have someone in the car with you to keep you engaged with the
road. This not only helps with not spacing out, but also with not
checking your phone because someone else is always there to make sure
you focus and don’t do something stupid and crash.

Overall,
driving is dangerous, and even though you might be doing everything
right someone else might not be. However, if these ideas are
implemented and enforced hopefully the amount of people that die from
car accident will be reduced so that your regular drive to Walmart
won’t be as dangerous as going to war.