A Safer Driving Environment

Melinda Amick

14 October 2020

A Safer Driving Environment

As a new driver, I have opened my eyes to the dangers that driving entails. From a passenger’s point of view, I never thought about how each action a driver takes greatly impacts the safety of our own and the safety of other people on the road. The first time I sat in the driver’s seat it all hit me at once. I feared every maneuver I made and those around me as well. The factor that changed this for me was my driver’s education course. It not only helped me learn the rules of the road, but also the safety by demonstrating certain skills behind a wheel. The next time I went out for a drive I was less nervous and made few mistakes which lowered the risk of being involved in a terrible accident. The effectiveness of driver education is something I believe help’s people gain confidence and develop an understanding of driving, it’s dangers, and how one can stop those dangers from happening.

Having an understanding of how to stay safe while driving, I have had the time to wonder on ways to prevent serious death due to recklessness. I blame it on two variables, lack of knowledge and lack of maturity. I think there needs to be more emphases on teaching youths on the do’s and don’ts of driving. Our school’s education system, for example, should have a class focused on teaching the responsibilities and the consequences if they were to neglect the rules of safety. This class would be an addition to the driving school’s which would then go into more depth on how to handle a machine such as a car so that it may not become a weapon. This would be effective because many driving schools do not spend enough time emphasizing aspects of a vehicle. The lack of knowledge of how to physically operate a vehicle can cause uncertainty of the driver and end in death. By bettering the education of vehicle operation and safety the more preventable automobile death will be in the long run because people will have the knowledge and confidence to avoid it.

I have had multiple experiences of automobile fatalities in my lifetime. As a child, a friend of mine was side swiped and were seriously harmed. It scared me and made me realize at a young age the dangers of the road. Since then, I made it an importance to have set rules for myself in order to keep myself and others safe. I do not drive with friends for fear of distraction and have plans in place if I am unfit to drive. I work on influencing my peers to do the same and maybe this could create a domino effect. The safer of a driving environment we make for ourselves the better off we all are and the trend of automobile deaths will decrease with our combined efforts.