Staying Safe from Behind the Wheel

Beard|
5

Bridgette Beard
Staying
Safe from Behind the Wheel
It is easy to forget how
dangerous a vehicle can be when you’re behind the wheel but being a
distracted driver can be a fatal mistake. From drinking to texting
people make careless decisions that claim the lives of thousands each
year. As a nation we need to start to resolve the crisis that is an
overwhelming number of fatalities caused by collisions. There are
many organizations who advocate for safe driving habits, but
ultimately laws are too lenient.
Driver safety can be improved
by first looking at education and how we teach new drivers to operate
vehicles on the road. A study done by researchers Duane Shell and Ian
Newman has found that drivers ed significantly decreases
crashes and traffic violations among new drivers. In the instance of
drivers ticketed for violating traffic laws 10.4 percent of students
who took drivers ed had been ticketed compared to 18.3 percent
of drivers who hadn’t. (1) With an almost 8 percent increase in
traffic stops it is clear that drivers who had formal education were
generally safer on the roads. Despite these numbers it is not a
legal requirement to pass a drivers ed course to apply for
a driver’s license if you are over the age of 18. With road crashes
being the leading cause of death in young people ages 15-29, it
should be required for every driver that they pass driver’s
education. (2)
It
is important to always remain aware of how drugs and alcohol effect
your ability to drive safely. The influence of these substances is
prevalent among accident fatalities. A research that studied
wrong-way collisions shows that alcohol was the biggest contributor
above weather conditions, safety equipment, and elderly drivers. (3)
In the united states the legal limit for BAC behind the wheel is .08
g/dL, however there is still an issue with people being too
intoxicated with BACs of .07 g/dL and lower. In 2017 1,837 people
were killed in alcohol related crashes where the driver had legal
alcohol levels. (4) Again, we see a trend that young drivers between
the ages of 21 and 24 tend be responsible for most accidents
involving alcohol at 34%. This is just a testament to how dangerous
driving with substances in your system can be and it’s always
better to be safe than sorry.
In addition to driving while
intoxicated, texting and driving accounts for a large number of
driving collisions and again, teen drivers are the primary culprit.
Being aware of the cell phone use while driving statistics can make
you appreciate the value of engaged driving. The National Safety
Council states that in 2013 1.2 million car accidents involved
talking on cell phones and nearly 350,000 involved texting. To
further express the risk of cellphone distractions while driving, it
is imperative to note that Carnegie Mellon shows that cell phone use
reduced the amount of brain activity while driving by 37%. It was
only recently that stricter laws surrounding texting and driving were
passed in Texas but it is not heavily enforced and it is still legal
to take a phone call while driving. This is just one of many examples
of how driving laws are not stern enough.
Preventing careless accidents
is a lot more basic than just avoiding texting and alcohol. It is
important to apply what you learned in drivers ed.
Personally, I have been rear ended three times, and I’ve only been
driving for 4 years. Safe and attentive driving is something I’m
passionate about because all of those accidents could have been
avoided if the drivers at fault would have maintained a safe distance
behind my vehicle. While accidents like these aren’t serious, you
could avoid a lot of stress just by practicing safer driving habits.
Speeding is something that all
of us have done every now and then, but you should never be too
comfortable going over the posted speed limit. Speeding counts for an
astounding 26% of traffic fatalities in 2017. (5) Speed can affect
your safety even you are driving at the posted speed but going too
fast for the road’s conditions, like bad weather, dark areas, and
construction. Speeding can potentially cause you to lose control of
your vehicle and reduces effectiveness of airbags. Not exceeding the
posted speed limit would greatly reduce the amount of vehicle
fatalities we see annually.
One of the most important
aspects of car safety is seatbelts. Even when being cautious on the
road, accidents happen, and a seatbelt can mean the difference
between life and death. In 2014, of all fatal accidents reported in
Virginia, 48.1% were not wearing seatbelts. And of those who wore a
seatbelt in an accident, 76,452 were not injured; whereas for those
who did not wear seatbelts, only 4,605 were not injured. (6)
Something as simple as remembering to buckle up is the first step to
be a safe driver and can reduce the chance of death in the event of
an accident by 50%. It is also crucial to understand and exercise the
correct procedures to buckle a child in a car seat. An estimated
618,000 children ride in a car without a safety seat, and even more
use them correctly. For infants, a properly used safety seat can
reduce the chance of death by 70%, and 54% in toddlers. (7) Using a
safety seat backwards can actually break a child’s neck if the
collision is forceful enough so it absolutely necessary to take all
precautions when a child is present in the vehicle.
Interestingly, DMV education
highlights that today driving is more dangerous than combat. More
Americans died behind the wheel each year than the over-all number of
armed forces who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars behind.
Furthermore, roadway collisions are the leading cause of death for
all Americans under the age of 44. These statistics portray just how
deadly driving can be if not following safety procedures and traffic
laws. Besides the aspect of safety, it is economically efficient to
reduce collisions as non-fatal injuries cost the United States $671
billion each year. (8) Driving safety is undoubtedly an epidemic
worldwide and beginning to improve driver’s safety habits would
solve many issues outside of just lowering the fatality rate of car
accidents.

Works Cited

University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, Leslie Reed. “Study: Drivers Ed
Significantly Reduces Teen Crashes, Tickets.” Study:
Drivers Ed Significantly Reduces Teen Crashes, Tickets | News
Releases | University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
13 Aug. 2015, 2:02, newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2015/08/13/Study:
Drivers ed significantly reduces teen crashes, tickets.

“Road
Safety Facts.” Association
for Safe International Road Travel,
www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/.

Fitzsimmons,
et al. “An Evaluation of Wrong-Way Crashes from Highway Ramps in
Kansas, USA.” Taylor
Francis,
14 June 2019,
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17457300.2019.1625412?journalCode=nics20.

[email protected].
“Drunk Driving.” NHTSA,
8 May 2019, www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving.

[email protected].
“Speeding.” NHTSA,
13 May 2019, www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/speeding.

“Seat
Belt Statistics | How Many Injuries Deaths Per
Year.” Edgarsnyder.com,
www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/defective-products/seat-belts/seat-belts-statistics.html.

“Car
Seat Safety.” American
SPCC,
31 Jan. 2019, americanspcc.org/2019/01/31/car-seat-safety/.

“Key
Data and Statistics|WISQARS|Injury Center|CDC.” Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8 May 2017,
www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/overview/key_data.html.

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