The Importance of Driving Safely

On January 29, 1886, the very first car was patented by a man named Carl Benz. His goal was to make transportation easier and quicker for those around him. He could have never imagined the devastating effects that his invention would bring with it because in less than 10 years was the very first motor accident. A man named Henry Wells crashed into a cyclist and ended up killing him. Now times have changed and so have cars and yet we still have more accidents every year than ever reported before.

No one expects to get into an accident. No one wakes up in the morning hoping to crash into that fellow driver before work, but yet it happens and more often than you would think. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are about 6,296,000 traffic accidents every year in the U.S. This is roughly about 17,250 car crashes per day. To add to this, it is estimated that of those 6,296,000 people to get into a crash every year about 1.35 million of those people die. To make matters worse many insurance agencies assume every person will be in an auto-related collision roughly every 18 years. This means that every person in the U.S., assuming that they live up to 80 years will be in at least 4 accidents in their lifetimes, making it very likely that you could be the next one in a collision.

So if driving is so deadly, why do we do it? As E.B. White put it, “Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.” Though driving does have its risks the opportunity of getting to that location quicker than you could without it is much greater. For example, my school is 9 miles away from my house. If I were to not take a car and walk to school that would take me about 3 hours to get there, but if I were to drive it would only take me 19 minutes. That is the beauty of a car and many people, like myself, continue to use a car to get to where they need to go quicker.

Even though there is a risk when it comes to driving there are many things drivers can do to prevent them from getting into accidents. Many drivers get into accidents because of distracted driving. Many things can distract a driver while they are driving. Anything from a kid crying in the back seat to their cell phone can be a distraction. So ignoring these distractions and paying attention to the road is vital when trying to keep you and those around you safe. Yet many people don’t. They choose to look at that text or eat that burrito instead of looking at the road, this is how they get into collisions. Many times this is because they are uneducated about the dangers of distracted driving or they simply think it couldn’t happen to them. Many companies work to educate the youth of America of the importance of paying attention to the road but they don’t work to educate the older group of society. Many people forget as they grow older and become careless. The more we educate society as a whole rather than just the youth the less distracted drivers and the fewer accidents will occur. Everyone must also wear a seat belt in the car when on the road to ensure safety. Although seat belts are not 100% effective in preventing serious injury it does help prevent death by nearly 50% which is huge when in a life or death situation. That extra 50% may save your life.

Then there is the case of drunk driving. In 2016, 28% of all traffic accidents had to do with drivers under the influence. I personally know someone who has been a victim of someone who was drunk driving. Last year, a senior at my school named Kassandra Tran was in a car with her uncle on the way home from a holiday. Her uncle had been drinking but Kasey had no other ride home so she took it. Later that night Kasey and her uncle got into a wreckless then 5 miles from her own home both her and her uncle sadly passed away. The whole school was devastated at the news of Kasey’s passing. She was a light in the school and everyone knew her. Even today a full year later we all hold ceremonies in her honor to remember her. IT just goes to show how terrible drunk driving really is. It’s not just statistics on a graph but a real person’s life at stake. People telling their personal stories can impact others around them and encourage them to pay attention while driving.

To put it all together, driving is dangerous but necessary to survive in the modern-day. To protect those around us we all must work together to further educate on the importance of safe driving. Who knows, it might even save your life.