Preventing the Preventable

Preventing the Preventable

A 500 Essay by Madeline Bowler

By the time it takes to have read this sentence, someone has probably just died from a driving-related accident. Someone has just lost a mother or father, sister or brother, husband or wife, son or daughter. Someone has just received a phone call that will change their lives forever.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.35 million people die every year from traffic accidents. That’s an average of 3698 deaths per day, and 2.5 deaths per minute.

Is there a way to stop this? Is there a way to have that mother or father, son or daughter, husband or wife, home safely with those who love them? Is there a way to make the road a safer place?

The answer is yes. There is a way to save these lives, to keep hospitals from overfilling with people, and to keep funerals at bay.

In a study done by the University of Nebraska, Leslie Reed states that “Young drivers who have not completed driver’s education are 75 percent more likely to get a traffic ticket, 24 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal or injury accident and 16 percent more likely to have an accident.” If everyone who was allowed on the road had proper education to do so, we could decrease fatal accidents by nearly 25 percent! That would bring the yearly death rate to 1.0125 million deaths a year, 2773 deaths per day, and 1.9 deaths per minute. That saves about 1 person every two minutes. If a great doctor could save a life every two minutes, he or she would be revered around the world. But we can save those people together.

It doesn’t mean that all accidents are avoidable, however. When I was younger, we were rear ended on Interstate 5 while headed to Tigard for my cousin’s first birthday. The congestion on the freeway was horrible, and when one person in a car far ahead of us slammed on their brakes, it caused quick stops all the way down the road. The person behind us, however, did not stop fast enough, and their car slammed into the back of ours. If we had been in our old van, rather than our strong and sturdy pickup, our injuries could have been fatal.

In this situation, nothing could have been done. The woman behind us didn’t have enough time to react to the sudden braking, and we all paid the consequences. How do we avoid the accidents that are just that, accidents?

I don’t have all the answers. Maybe better regulation for laws on the freeway or the manufacturing of vehicles would have prevented that accident. But the sad truth is that some accidents really are unavoidable when the moment strikes.

However, the avoidable accidents should be our top priority. The government has made great strides to ban the use of smartphones while driving, but we could be doing more. Proper driving education is essential for keeping people safe on the road.