The Laws of the Road

Emma Johnson

The Laws of the Road

My first car accident happened within the first year of me getting my license. I was driving home from school one day when someone took a left out of a 7 eleven without looking right to see if anyone was coming. I saw him coming and I tried to stop and swerve out of the way but it was already too late and he hit the left front side of my car leaving it smashed in and undrivable. Even though everything was okay in the end and no one seriously got hurt, if the person who hit me had looked left and had followed the rules of the road I would not have had my first car accident and my neck would not have hurt with a crick for the next couple of months. A huge number of car accidents occur this way, someone does not know the rules of the road and as a consequence, they hit someone who was just driving and going along their day. When I first got my permit I had to take 3 driving classes in which we learned how to drive a car and the laws of the road. Some of the laws we learned were if a road is divided by a white line then you can not go into the other lane but if the line was yellow and had dashes then you can cross into the different lane. When I would talk about these laws with people who already had licenses they sounded surprised about some of the things I mentioned, they did not know the rules of the road. So many car accidents could be prevented if people ever now and then would catch up and review these laws so they can remember them while they’re driving on the streets. For example the rules at a four-way stop. Not many drivers know that when you come to a four-way stop the rule is the first person who got there and then the cars are supposed to take turns going in a clockwise direction. However, most of the time when you go to a four-way stop not many people know what to do so they make up a pattern as they go. I do understand however that I am not a perfect driver who knows every law about the road. I could do better by paying more attention to my surroundings when I drive and I could learn more rules about the road. However, even though I am admitting I am not the best driver not many people can. Not a lot of people can admit to themselves that they are not the best drivers to be on the road and they can do nothing more to improve their driving skills. Currently, in America two-thrids of drivers believe they are excellent and very good drivers and give themselves very positive reviews. I believe that if people were to understand the laws of the road better and admitted they needed more skills when it came to driving the roads would be a lot safer.