Driving Responsibly Saves Lives

Imagine listening to your favorite song cruising down the highway with your windows down on a warm summer night. Your phone vibrates and you wonder who has sent you a message. You think to yourself that taking a second to check your phone will not hurt anything. Your best friend sent you a funny message and you start to reply when suddenly your head slams into the airbag. Next thing you know, you are rushed to the hospital with a major concussion and life-threatening injuries. This is a scary, but very true reality that many have either experienced themselves or had a loved one experience. According to Road Safety Facts, “More than 38,000 people die in crashes every year in the U.S. An additional 4.4 million are injured seriously enough to require medical attention¹.” The need for driver’s education is more important than ever with more distractions including mobile phones.

The steps we can take to reduce the number of deaths related to driving starts with education and awareness. Driver’s education should be the first step for a new driver. The first thing new drivers should be taught is the dangers of driving and just how scary it can really be. I remember being terrified from watching videos of wrecks and accidents in my driver’s education class. This made me very cautious and nervous when I first started driving. I think that instilling healthy fear is a very effective technique in teaching new drivers that their life is truly on the line. Driver’s education is one of the most important classes a high school student can take and a great way to help reduce overall accidents and deaths on the road. The next step is reinforcement and reminders. As new drivers turn into experienced drivers, they become more confident, complacent, and less cautious. This can be very detrimental as a lot of these drivers begin to use their phones, eat, and allow other distractions as they are confident, believe they are invincible, and not scared. Therefore, reinforcement needs to come into to play. There are billboards and constant reminders in advertisements and online. There should probably be even more reminders and reinforcements of safe driving.

I have been very fortunate to have only been in one small car accident. My mother and I were driving slowly down a country road on snow and ice when a lady started backing up into the road from her driveway. My mother thought she saw us coming down the road and was going to stop, but my mother had to swerve out of the way into the ditch at the last minute. Fortunately, my mother avoided what could have been a dangerous accident. This experience taught me to not only be careful of my driving, but to pay attention to other cars on the road as well. Overall, my parents have been very good role models for my driving, and I am thankful for that.

All drivers need to pay full attention while driving, drive defensively, and be prepared to react to other drivers’ negligence. I have been fortunate not to have been in a car wreck or pulled over by the police. I have full intentions of keeping it this way. I avoided a wreck with a semi who was in the wrong not too long ago. I had to slam on my brakes in order to stop myself from crashing into a semi that turned right in front of me. I was frightened and shook up that I could have been in a really bad situation. I was also proud of myself for taking control of the situation and avoiding a wreck. Many of my friends have been in some type of wreck and I know they have learned a lot from this. I’m very fortunate to have had a good education on driving and be able to promote safe driving. I hope to continue this for the rest of my life, and I promise to be as safe as I can on the roads.