Name: Jasmine Wren
From: Amityville, New York
Votes: 0
Why
Driver Is Important and How to Practice Safe Driving
By : Jasmine Wren
With
225 million licensed drivers just within the US it evident that its
one of the most favored ways of transportation. But with that being
said, how many people actually practice safe driving. Safe driving
includes staying 100% focused while on the road, driving
“defensively”, being prepared for changes: route changes and
timing changes, and more. And with a 40,000 car-crash death rate, as
of 2018, it is evident that not enough people actually practice safe
driving.1
One
of the biggest “rules” people break is staying 100% focused on
driving. This being the highest in teen drivers due to texting. With
more children having phones at younger ages on them all the time
before they get a car, it becomes ingrained their life making it
harder for them to not get distracted when a text comes in while
driving. As kids gets phones younger they become ingrained in their
life. This becomes a danger while driving because they don’t think
of the phone as a distraction, but rather as a part of them. So when
a text or a notification comes in they don’t realize all the
dangers that come with checking and responding to that notification.
Since most phones have a “do not disturb” feature you can turn
this on while driving. This is just one small way to reduce the risk
of seeing that notification or text and responding just out of habit
and getting into an accident because of it.
Being
prepared for changes can help a driver be less anxious, therefore
makes them more alert and cautious while driving. One way you can be
prepared for changes is checking your route to see if there has been
any accidents or construction that would affect the route. Some free
apps that have up-to-date traffic reports are Waze Social GPS &
Traffic, Inrix Traffic, and Glob – Traffic and Radar. By
being less anxious and prepared you will more likely to follow safe
driving.
I
have been in a couple different situations where the driver was
distracted or recklessly driving, making me feel very unsafe as a
passenger. One specific situation I recall is when my sister was
driving and her friend texted her and instead of pulling over and
responding she decided to just send the text while driving. She ended
up swerving into the guardrail which didn’t cause any significant
damage necessarily to us but the car got significantly damaged and
she ended get a ticket which resulted in a $200 fine. Fortunately,
after this minor accident her and I realized the significance of safe
driving and either pulling over to answer the text or waiting until
she reached the destination.
Practicing
unsafe driving has resulted in over 40,000 deaths, deaths that
could’ve been prevented by not answering that text, not grabbing
the headphones that fell, being more alert and cautious, and by being
prepared for possible changes there are no unsafe risks. By
practicing unsafe driving you automatically risk becoming one of
those 40,000 deaths or becoming severely injured. Another others can
do is also make sure others around them are drinking safely, making
sure to point out and inform family and friends when they are
practicing unsafe driving and making sure they realize to the full
extent the risk they are taking.
