Always Focus on the Road

We often take driving a car for granted, we take it as something
everyone gets to do. This mentality causes us to not take diving as
seriously as we all should and allow ourselves to let distractions
such as music, phones or passengers come between our eyes and the
road. We begin to think we are capable of putting driving on the back
burner while texting or talking.

I have been in a small accident and have learned immensely from my
mistake. It was late at night and I had just gotten off from a long
shift at work (I work as a swim instructor/lifeguard), I was driving
home exhausted after when I reached a stoplight. I was distracted
looking at the car to my left, out of the corner of my eye I saw the
stoplight turn green so I let my foot off the clutch and pushed the
gas pedal. I didn’t look in front of me to see if the car in front of
me moved, and they didn’t, I hit the back of their truck. It was an
eye-opening moment to me it made me realize that maybe I wasn’t as
great of a driver as I thought I was. There was no damage to their
truck for I had only hit their hitch, my car as well was fine. This
incident made me remember how important focus on the road is when
driving. I’m not saying that everyone needs to experience a car
accident to be reminded of how important focus on the road is, but
for me, it was the reminder I needed. I started to drive slower and
more responsibly, that small reminder came at a time I needed before
something much worse happened.

In the first couple of years, teens often think they are the best
drivers out there, and that they can text, talk, and change the music
all while responsibly and safely driving. That is never the case, In
the beginning of the school year in my economics class we learned
about the Dunning-Kruger effect, this is where people believe they
have a large amount of knowledge or skill level in a specific area.
Teens, I believe experience this within the first year of driving,
they have a false sense of confidence in their skills. The more we as
a society can remind teens along with drivers everywhere that
focusing on the road while driving is what is truly important no
matter how good of a driver you may be.

The more we can educate others the safer we all will be; we are often
told that focusing on the road is extremely important while driving.
I believe we all need small daily reminders, with real examples. Most
go through drivers Ed once, take a test and that’s it, but there
needs to be more than that, whether it’s another class required in a
couple of years or even an online course. Whatever it may be we all
need a constant reminder of how important focus on the road is.