Making the Roads Safer

Making the Roads Safer

Thousands of people die every year from car accidents, and a lot of those deaths are preventable. Simple distractions such as phones and friends should not be the reasons why lives are ended or forever changed for the worse. Teaching children the vast consequences of their actions while they are on the road will lower the number of deaths caused by car accidents in the United States and hopefully lead to safer roads and communities across the country. In other words, Driver’s Ed is essential. It covers the basics of driving, while also training teenagers on how to become safe, law-abiding drivers. The principles taught in these courses follow the students into adulthood. Increasing the availability of Driver’s Ed and implementing it in our school curriculums will aid in the reduction of the number of deaths caused by reckless driving.

Individually, several steps can be taken to make our roads safer. Avoid driving whenever you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Both kinds of substances severely cloud your attention and, in some cases, lead to blurred vision. Driving when your mind is not completely sharp puts you and other drivers around you in the danger of suffering the consequences of your negligent actions while under the influence. Other than drugs and alcohol, the most prominent distraction is our phones. Turning off alerts and waiting until you have safely parked before answering texts will help ensure that your entire focus is on the road ahead. Some cars allow your calls to be directly connected to the audio system within it. With just a click of a button on your wheel, you can easily accept calls without looking down or reaching for your phone. Using this feature on your car, if available, can prevent you from taking your eyes off the road, thus making you a safer driver. Any passenger in the car with you can become also a possible dangerous distraction. Never turn around to talk to friends, reach for anyone, or look at a picture, video, or text on their phones. All these actions put everyone in your car in danger by diverting your attention away from the road.

Spreading awareness on the high amount of deaths caused by distracted driving will make people more aware of the importance of being alert on the road. Though I haven’t personally been in a bad car accident, I know that car accidents have the ability to drastically change a person’s life in the blink of an eye. My father works as a respiratory therapist in the trauma center and he has personally seen the aftermaths of terrible, preventable accidents. People are rolled in with broken bones, heads split open, and glass sticking out of them. My father always tells me that cars aren’t toys to be played with. They aren’t cool appliances to be used to impress friends or race around neighborhoods. They are dangerous machines that, though useful, have the capacity to brutally take human lives. It is important to understand the danger they hold and turn that knowledge into safer actions behind the wheel. If we all work together, we can make all of our roads safer.