Safety Across The World

Safety Across The World

Aminatou Diop

Drivers education is something that we all take as a class in high school. Unfortunately, many don’t realize the importance of driver’s education until after highschool. Whether it be a car accident, a tragic family event, a loss, etc. In order to reduce the number of deaths from driving, we need to work harder and more together to prevent it from continuing to occur. Worldwide, motor vehicle deaths occur daily. It has become so common to where all we can do and say is “be safe” and “have a safe trip.” There is no way to guarantee the safety of our loved ones, and ourselves. In order to fix this issue, we need to tackle the root of the problem: effort.

There is such low effort when it comes to safety, so let’s go back to the stepping stones. The first step that can be taken to reducing motor vehicle deaths starts with schooling. When I was taking drivers ed, it was nothing close to what the reality of it is. Textbooks do not give students enough hands-on experience, so something we can do as a country is making drivers education more hands-on, so that they themselves can see how real of an issue this is and why it needs to be taken seriously. Another step to take is introducing new traffic laws in order to improve the roads in countries. There are a lot of places right now with no traffic lights and a lot of four-way stops. These drivers make their own rules, resulting in a lot of accidents daily. It is a global issue of not caring enough to prioritize human lives.

I have been in a lot of almost-accident situations, and I have seen my own family members acting carelessly in the car. I think the reason behind people acting carelessly is because they have gotten so used to driving around every day that it becomes second nature. They no longer think that they are in danger because they are used to it. When this happens, I make sure to check my parents/siblings on their actions and tell them that safety while driving is not a joke. For me, being alert while you’re in the car is something that should continuously be practiced. There is too much heartbreak and pain going on in the world as we speak because of other carelessness. So in order to reduce that, start checking your friends and family. Tell them what is right and what is wrong in order to remind them that your life, and theirs, is at stake.

I may only be a teenager, but one step that I will take when I start driving will be to be alert on the road. Always check the driver in the front of me and the back of me, to make sure that they are driving safely and putting neither of our lives in danger. I will remind my peers as well that this is not a joke – many teens think that drifting, speeding, and overall driving recklessly is something that is fun to do. But it is because of situations like this that so many teen drivers die in car accidents. We need to nip this behavior in the bud, and it all starts with educating people around you.

Death rates from road traffic accidents by country, per 100,000 inhabitants, world map (WHO 2013).^{[1][nb 1]}

fewer than 5

5-10

10-15

15-20

20-25

25-30

30-35

35-40

more than 40