Distracted Driving

The importance of driver education in reducing the number of deaths caused by vehicle accidents cannot be understated. Driver education is a necessary tool to save lives, especially in a world with distracted driving being one of the leading causes of driving related deaths. Knowing the rules of the road, and the risks involved with distracted driving, can reduce the number of accidents that cause horrible injuries, resulting in death. To reduce these incidents, we should continue to educate young drivers and those learning how to drive, by emphasizing safe driving. Driver education can be used to open people’s eyes to the dangers of driving and to emphasize that distracted driving is very hazardous, especially with teenagers today.

I have been in a few car accidents as a passenger, but nothing major. Neither of the accidents resulted in injuries and there wasn’t any major damage to the cars involved. One of the accidents was a driver that rear ended my dad’s car after the driver sped up too quickly at a light. Guess what? It was because he was distracted while on his phone when the light turned green. The other incident occurred when my mom was driving me and my brother to school. A teenage girl was merging into traffic from a side parking lot and scraped my mom’s car on the driver’s side, and kept going. The driver wasn’t paying close attention to the oncoming traffic and didn’t stop in time, resulting in the accident. My family members have also gotten in accidents, more major than the ones that I have personally gotten on. One time my cousin told us that they had gotten in an accident and they had a major headache from it. It is so important to avoid accidents, even small ones like these, as they could have resulted in accidents that caused major injuries.

I have personally seen some of my family members drive irresponsibly. My dad sometimes texts and drives, but still keeps his eye on the road and hasn’t been in any accidents. Although he is a good driver, he still shouldn’t text and drive. My mom does “California stops”, meaning she doesn’t come to a complete stop for a stop sign or at an intersection. This can also be dangerous because if she doesn’t stop fully, she may not be aware of a car that is potentially zooming past her.

I know that I can personally do a lot of things to make sure I’m keeping safe on the road. I sometimes check my phone before coming to a complete stop and that is not safe at all. Other times, I don’t put my full attention to the road, like when I change the radio station, which could lead to close calls or even an accident, if I’m not careful. In order to keep myself safe, and keep others safe, I need to make sure I put my phone fully away and make sure to keep my eyes on the road at all times.