Driving in the South

Driving in the South

There have been plenty of times when I have been driving and the vehicle next to me swerves into my lane, because they have been on their phones, or adjusting the radio, climate controls, etc. Driver’s education is a very valuable course that my school provides for young and upcoming drivers. Driver’s education has taught me a lot of applicable and valuable information for being on the road. It teaches you good ways of handling situations that you very well may encounter while being on the road.

Growing up in the environment that I did taught me a lot of road safety. It taught me to not pass vehicles recklessly, not to tailgate any type of vehicle, especially farming equipment or semi -trucks hauling gravel, gas, oil, etc. I have known plenty of people who have passed away from car accidents, head on collisions, or rolling their trucks, because they thought that they could pass a semi-truck with time to spare, or that it was okay to take a turn while going over the speed limit. My family and friends have gotten cracked windshields just for simply driving behind a semi-truck, but because most of my friends and family have taken driver’s education, they knew not to freak out or swerve, because that in turn would have caused a crash. Potholes also are all over the roads in my community. Those potholes teach you its better to hit them and deal with the damage done to your vehicle later rather than swerving into the other lane to avoid them.

Driver’s education has also taught me that driving slower is a lot better than driving a speed you are not comfortable with, just because someone was tailgating you. Believe it or not, my state does have something other than just the desert. The mountains are one of the places that you do not want to get caught driving through during the night-time, because there are deer, elk, bears, skunks, etc. Driver’s education has taught me that I would rather hit the animal and the animal most likely just walk away from it wounded, rather than someone try to avoid it by swerving, and in turn driving off the side of the mountain and cause a lot more injuries and sometimes even death, just depending on where you drove off at, than if you would have just hit the animal. One of the busier roads in my state has countless cars at the very bottom of the valley, because people were driving too fast, they tried to avoid an animal, or they just were not paying attention to the road.

Those cars at the bottom of the valley, along with a full semester of driver’s education have taught me countless lessons and they serve as very good reminders for those who have almost followed the exact same path they took. I still learn new things everyday that I drive. I am more than grateful that I took the opportunity to become a more educated and safe driver.