My Experience and Advice about Safe Driving

The lessons learned from driver’s education is so incredibly important it’s where drivers learn the rules of the road, and more importantly how to stay safe. The lessons they teach in the classroom do work and have been proven to work. I know this from personal experience I was driving home and was getting off the highway when I hit a patch of black ice on the exit ramp. I began to fishtail and it was at that moment the lesson I learned about what to do in this situation kicked in. I took my feet off the petals and I gently turned the wheel with the direction of the fishtail. Luckily no one was behind me, and once I stopped I was able to get back on the road, and get home safely. If it was not for drivers ed I would have freaked out and potentially crashed into a tree or slid over the hill into the highway. Through remembering the lessons I learned I was able to avoid a potential fatal accident, and others can too.

Everyone can take steps to be safer when driving on the road. I believe it is very important to review material you learned in drivers ed every now and then in order to maintain your knowledge on the laws, as well as tips on what to do when something inevitably goes wrong. Always adhere to the laws and the signs in the area that you are driving in, there is always a reason the speed limit is where it’s at, or why you yield at this intersection, and so on. As well as using common sense, if the conditions are not great because of the weather then drive slower or wait for the weather to pass, if the road looks unsafe then find an alternative route, as well as avoiding distractions. The best tip is to always remain calm, because if you do not remain calm then you will overreact and that could make the situation worse. Do all final cheeks and preparations before you begin to drive. Check tire pressure, gas, oil, and other essential factors of your car especially before heading out on long car trips, or if it’s been a while. Those are some ways to avoid getting in a car accident and being a safer driver overall.

I always try to be cautious when I am behind the wheel of the car ever since my mom got in that really bad accident when we were still living in the Mojave Desert. She was driving home alone from work one day on a sand dirt road. She was driving a little faster than the regulated speed limit was, and when she got to the stop sign before the intersection she could not stop due to her locking the brakes and the loose sand and gravel. She slid into the middle of the intersection and got T-boned by a bigger car which resulted in her rolling a few times. She survived, but has suffered lasting injuries since the accident. Ever since her accident I promised to myself that I would take driving safely very important in order to avoid such accidents for myself, for my family, and for my friends. Driver safety is a very important matter and should be everyone’s first priority when getting behind the wheel.