
Name: Logan T. Cooper
From: Cookeville, TN
Votes: 0
Being Safe Behind the Wheel, Just Because YOU can
Logan Cooper
Being Safe Behind the Wheel,
Just Because YOU Can
First off, driving is one of the most seen and practiced recreational activities followed in the past 10 years. With over 230 million drivers in the US alone, there are more drivers today than their ever have been and the number will only continue to rise as new vehicles, new generations, and new reasons arise. Driving is seen as a necessary daily activity for many, due to the distance of a job or need for quick transportation between point a and point b, but it isn’t always the happiest thing in the world to be doing. On average, 34,000 people die every year from driving accidents. This information may be surprising, but it shouldn’t, every time you turn on the news, or open social media, the likelihood that you see a twisted and mangled wreckage of a vehicle is very high. This is the world we live in today, but it doesn’t have to be. The information, scenarios, and education we have at our disposal is what we need to be using to set people on the right path of driving. If we educated every student as they are just learning how to drive in their Sophomore year of Highschool, we could reduce the number of deaths caused by inexperience by a large margin. Now just ensuring someone has a proper education will now completely eliminate the factor/ chance that someone will face an accident, or that no fatal accidents will occur, because they will. Even though those there are those that have been educated, they still get in crashes, because sometimes life happens and the unexpected can attack at any moment, but that doesn’t mean that educating drivers won’t help to lessen the odds of an accident. The steps that should be taken to increase education on driving are firstly introducing a new course on driving in the early development of students like mentioned before, in their sophomore year. This would result in the first experience they receive, being handled with the utmost care and supervision by professional educators. Past this, the education could be taken further by offering future courses in driving safety or preventative measures, that would teach drivers past the basics and offer insight on the statistics and how to prevent themselves and others from becoming one of them. I have had an experience personally being in an accident as well as having someone in my close family in a severe accident. My accident wasn’t as severe but was caused by me being distracted while in the car by something that wasn’t the road. This is one of the first things that should be taught is that distraction on the road or in the vehicle that are not necessary should be ignored to offer a safer experience. With my Family members accident, they were rear ended by a driver that was not paying attention and texting on his phone. This accident put 3 of my friends in the hospital and caused them injuries that can still be seen today. My little brother also just received his license and I hope that what I have demonstrated through driving him around have been able to impact the way he drives and interacts with his surroundings. These were 2 examples of accidents with consequences both mild and severe, but the last consequence is fatal, and thankfully, though I have never experienced this, many people have and it can be one of the most painful things to lose someone dear to you from something as simple as being uneducated. That is why I believe we should ll take steps to not only educate the future generations with driving safety, but also take steps in our own lives to prevent unsafe driving. Steps including becoming less distracted, know proper procedures regarding road scenarios, and even relearning the basics. These steps could not only help prevent injury, but also deaths of many and that is why we should all take a stand and advocate for Driver Education.