Drive Safe Because All Lives Matter

Shaniequa
Pleasant

Driver
Education Scholarship

7/18/2019

~Drive
safe because all lives matter ~

In
this day of age so many adults and teens are very carless when
driving they forget that not only are they putting their lives in
jeopardy, but they are putting everyone else’s life in jeopardy as
well. As a matter of fact, so many car accidents happen when the
driver of the car is distracted. Study shows that there are 1.6
million car crashes a year and that 1 out of every 4 car accidents in
the United States are caused by a distracted driver.

Today
there are several Social Media applications that pulls the attention
of drivers. The main things that distract them are texting, Facebook,
Twitter, Snapchat and many other applications in their phones. These
applications cause drivers to take their eyes off the road. One
application that stands out to me is Facebook. I witness this for
myself as a passenger in the car with my sister-in-law when she was
driving. We were driving along the expressway when her phone made a
“ding” noise. It was Facebook notifying her of an inbox message.
Her next move was unbelievable, she grabbed her phone opened the
notification and started replying and laughing to someone on
Facebook.

Due
to this distraction we missed our exit off the highway. I had never
been so afraid in my life. Although I was seat belted in with an
airbag I still feared for my life. At this point she started to
engage in road- rage with other drivers, due to her frustration of
missing her exit. According to SafeMotorist.com the number of people
involved in road-rage is increasing at 7% each year and 66% of
traffic fatalities can be linked to aggressive driving.

Steps
that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving
is first to put drivers ed back into schools and make it
mandatory to attend so that teens can learn how to drive properly so
that they may continue the good habits they learned throughout adult
hood. This would be the importance of drivers ed in reducing
the number of deaths as a result of driving.

The
steps that I can take to become a better and safe driver as well as
to help others is to turn off my phone while driving, or to simply
put it on do not disturb. With today’s technology some phones are
already programmed where it won’t let you send a message while
driving or even use your phone. I think this is great both for adults
and teens. In conclusion drive safe because all lives matter.