Distracted Driving

It is not enough to simply know the rules of driving; one must be able to interpret situations well enough to implement the rules safely. The only way to learn how to drive safely enough to prevent accidents and deaths on the road is through complete and thorough driver education courses. Driver education courses are not only important in teaching the rules of the road, but they also teach how to react in different situations that can prevent accidents and ultimately reduce the number of driving related deaths. Having taken a driver education course, I understand how very useful these courses are. It is important through classes like this to see the severity of careless driving. Without such classes, there would be far more car crashes and driving related deaths.

There are many steps that can be taken to avoid and reduce and avoid deaths related to driving. Driving related deaths account for far more deaths than they should with proper precautions taken. Distracted driving, whether that is through driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, cell phones, and other distractions account for the majority of driving related accidents and deaths. In order to reduce accidents and deaths on the road, we must reduce distracted driving. One way to ensure distracted driving is to help drivers to understand the consequences of distractions. Including statistics and facts in driver education courses can help drivers and future drivers to understand the consequences of distracted driving. Drivers often disregard distractions when they are driving for convenience, lack of time, or lack of a better option for transportation. If people were to better understand what could happen as a result of distracted driving, they would be deterred from driving intentionally with distractions.

Another way to limit distracted driving is to provide more services that would prevent driving under the influence. Car and taxi services are becoming more common and easily accessible. If they could become more common and for lower prices, they would be used more commonly by those who are unable to drive due to current distractions. This would take distracted drivers off the road entirely, allowing them to save their own lives and the lives of other people on the road.

I have been fortunate enough to never have been in a car accident, or known anyone in a car accident. Though I have not been in an accident, I have experienced a lot of careless driving. Driving carelessly is far too common in high school, so simply being in the parking lot is a sure way to be around careless driving. Driver education is required to get a driver’s license, but not all of the driving courses are completed, which increases reckless driving. In order to combat this, more one-on-one instructor driving lessons should be required before one can get their license.

I consider myself a relatively safe driver, but I do realize that I have a lot of work to do in order to become a safer driver. There are steps that all drivers can take, no matter how much experience they have driving, in order to drive safely and prevent accidents and deaths. Driver education courses seem to differ drastically between states. Though there is not necessarily a right or wrong way to teach these courses, there are definitely good and bad in all versions of the course throughout the United States. Making these driver education courses more uniform and universal throughout the country could help to prevent accidents, which would then prevent driving related deaths.

As this universal change could be difficult to implement, there are several ways individual drivers can protect themselves and others on the road. Distracted driving is one of the main causes for accidents; there are many steps individuals can take to ensure they are not distracted while driving. To prevent driving under the influence of substances, drivers should make sure they have a plan in place where they can get home safely and they don’t have to drive in this condition. Another significant distraction that can cause accidents is using a cell phone while driving. There are many options each driver has in order to prevent phone use while driving. Many current cell phones have settings that can be put into place to block notifications while driving. This is an extremely useful tool that can help cell phones to not give any distractions whatsoever. I personally use this setting while driving to ensure that there is no urge to look at my phone at all.

Deaths related to car accidents makeup a large percentage of mortality for young adults. Distracted driving is the main culprit of car accidents, so it is imperative that we take steps to prevent this. There are many simple steps individuals may take, as well as steps to be taken in driver education programs as a whole. If these steps are taken, thousands of lives may be saved.