The Key to Safe Driving

The Key to Safe Driving

As a licensed driver, it is always your responsibility to know the rules of the road and to follow the law. Following the simple laws of driving can save you as well as everyone else on the road. This includes not being a distracted driver, not driving under the influence, following the speed limit, using your lights, and many more. To me, the ones I named are the most impactful ones I can think of. You turn on the news and see something horrific due to one of these at least once a week. They are such simple rules to follow, but some people are too selfish to follow them.

A big step that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving would be for each individual to do their part. What I mean by this is that every person needs to follow the law and drive safely. Of course, it is not that easy. To add to it, each person needs to hold the people they know accountable. If they see and/or hangout with someone who does not drive safely or follow the laws when driving, they need to take it upon themselves to not only save the driver as well as the other people on the road.

I have been in a car accident and it was pretty scary, but thankfully everyone was okay. When I was probably around 9 or 10, my family and I were in the car stopped at a red light, and a car was coming up to us and did not seem to be slowing down. My mother noticed and yelled frightenedly and bam. We got hit. After the adults made sure everyone was okay, I heard them talking about what happened. The man behind us said he was reaching for his cigarettes and looked up too late. Instead of just waiting a few more seconds to stop at the red light and then search, he distracted himself and tried to look while driving. The human brain simply is not made to multi-task efficiently, so this led to a car accident. Also, in high school I was in many scenarios where kids would drive incredibly irresponsibly to get some laughs from the other kids. It would often-times get the laughs that were desired, but I remember a story about a girl I knew through social media who got extremely hurt by it. She was on the front windshield of the car as the kids were driving, and instead of gradually slowing down, they hit the brakes too hard resulting in her flying off. I believe she started to have seizures, and many other problems with brain functionality following the incident. This just goes to show that safety is of upmost importance while operating a vehicle. It is not a time to screw around and get laughs, because many lives are at stake every single day when it comes to driving.

I will admit, I am not the perfect driver. Some things I can improve on are being more patient and having two hands on the wheel at all times. I believe for the most part I am a safe driver. I luckily have never been in an accident as the driver and hope not to be in one ever. Some steps to being a safer driver are being aware of your surroundings, keeping your focus on the road, and following the laws of the road.