Stop to Check How You’re Driving

Driving
Scholarship Essay

At the end of one
long school day in elementary school, my friend and neighbor ran up
to me with a worried expression, exclaiming that my brother had been
in a car accident. This was one of my more terrifying memories as she
had no idea how bad it was and it would be a few hours before I found
out the details. He turned out okay, his only injury was a number of
cuts from punching out the glass of the far back window.

He had been going
down the street in our family suburban less than a mile away from
home when a driver at a stop sign to his right decided not to stop,
but rather proceed to hit him from the side and flip over the car so
he found himself stuck in it, upside down, and made his way out
through the rear of the car.

If this driver had
respected the importance of stopping at the stop sign, this wouldn’t
have happened. It’s often tempting to only partially stop, rolling
through an intersection without expecting any harm. This is not what
is taught though in preparation to obtain a driver’s license. Too
many people carelessly take their drivers ed course and pass all
their tests with ease, not paying close attention to it’s content.
By consistently applying the information taught through drivers ed
and driving lessons, drivers would more safely follow the laws of the
road, especially the simple yet underrated importance of coming to a
complete stop. To become a safer driver myself, I plan to go back and
review what I learned from drivers ed and remind those around me
to follow the laws of the road more seriously.