In the Driver’s Seat

In the Driver’s Seat

By: Gabriel Opp

Something so trivial is done every day without thinking, all hours of the day and all over the world: driving. Yet one major problem persists, people do not take the related dangers seriously. From texting your mom to calling your friends peril lurks around every bend. Educating new, and even experienced drivers, could help to reduce the deaths we sadly see each year. But using our own understanding to help inform others is a way each and everyone one of us can make a positive impact.

Education is the best friend of safety. It can shed light on how your actions effect not only you and the others on the road, but also those closest to you. Considering that, on average, nine people a day lose their lives to careless driving, there is still a lot of education that needs done.

The younger generation that is infatuated with technology and entertainment are the hardest to reach. When any person in a car has access to a device so enthralling that it commands attention, how do you compete? One way is by starting to inform them of what the outcomes of their choices could bring. When you look away from the road, you put not only yourself at danger but anyone else on the road with you. What if the car coming at you decides to look at their phone at the same exact moment. Not only will your family potentially face tragedy, but so will the other drivers. All all that was needed to prevent it was simply staying focused on the task at hand.

When I first got my permit, I drove my siblings to school on a bleak winter day, under my mother’s supervision. There was slush on the road and as I was not an experienced driver, I did not account for the danger it brought. I slid off the road and into a ditch, totaling the car but not injuring anyone. A simple miscalculation without distraction led to a dangerous situation. One that could have been compounded if any minimal distraction were added.

From my own experience I was able to understand that even when focused on a task, outside forces can still wreak havoc. However not everyone is as lucky to walk away from an accident with a lesson and minimal consequences. If I had lost a family member or harmed another driver, that would have been a much darker memory that lasted a lifetime. Using my own encounters with driving safety, I have been able to communicate the importance of safe driving and preparedness to my family.

Although education is a start, every person must choose to act upon the knowledge they have. I truly believe that we can all work together to create a safer society, one in which we share our experiences and knowledge and hold each other accountable. Education on safe driving is a key way to start altering the mentality of some, which can spread to countless others. When you are a passenger in a car with a driver that is not focused on driving alone, you can speak up and express concern. When someone texts you while you know they are driving, you can choose to ignore them or tell them you’ll talk to them when they are at their destination. All it takes is one person’s voice of reason to alter someone’s mentality and help them think smarter. If we can all strive to be the voice of change that we want to see, maybe you can help to inspire that change in others.