If the Seatbelt Fits

If the Seatbelt Fits

To me, flying on an airplane is one of the scariest things in the world. My palms get sweaty, I grip onto the seat, and I feel my stomach completely drop with any slight dip that happens during the flight. The only thing that gets me through the flight, however, is what my parents always tell me. They are constantly reminding me that flying is significantly safer than driving. While this temporarily calms my nerves for the short amount of time that follows when I am on the plane, shouldn’t this worry me whenever I get behind the wheel to drive? Or should I just be worried every single time I get in a car in general?

Statistically speaking, 2.2% of deaths per year are made up by car crashes. That seems relatively small right? Wrong. To put it in perspective, approximately 1.3 million people die from car crashes a year. That is 3,700 on average per day. Not so insignificant or small now right? This is especially true when you consider that one of these deaths could be someone you love. It could even potentially be you. This is a scary, but very real phenomena. Personally, I do not believe it is a stretch to say that by getting in our car daily, we are putting our lives at risk, but it is also not a stretch to say that it should not be that way. So, the question is, how do we fix this?

Many people may think that there is nothing they can do to make a difference as one individual, but this is far from the truth. It is the smallest things that make the biggest difference. This could mean collecting keys at the entrance of a social setting that involves alcohol to ensure that no one can drive home drunk, buzzed, or without a designated driver. It could mean not starting to drive until you have verified that everyone in the car has their seatbelt fastened. There is a huge difference between a car crash that is fatal and one that is not. Wearing a seatbelt can mean the difference between life and death. While it varies form state to state, in Nevada, the maximum fee for not wearing a seatbelt is $25. To me at least, that is not a very scary feat. To merely pay $25 and have no permanent restrictions seems like no big deal, and that is exactly the problem. In order to make a difference, there must be more of a punishment that will make people not only want to not do it again, but not do it in the first place. That is just one example of how you can make a change, by actively helping those around you make the right choice of wearing a seatbelt, and how state legislature, by allowing for heftier fines, can simultaneously help combat a major problem in fairly simple ways.

As citizens, we need to push to make driving safer for not only us but those around us until getting in the car does no longer mean actively risking your life. Will there always be risk of crashing while driving? Of course, but that does not mean that in any way we should stop pushing to make driving safer in our daily lives and the lives of those we love. We should not stop trying to make driving safer until what my parents tell me is no longer true. I hope one day people fly to their destinations for convenience reasons and not safety reasons.