Reduction of Driving Fatalities

Driving your own personal vehicle is a big step into adulthood in our society. At age 16 you can finally legally obtain your driver’s license and go wherever the road takes you. However, the exhilarating excitement of driving is also met with consequences if you are not safe and cautious. In 2019, there were 33,244 total fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States alone, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. These fatal crashes are caused by a wide range of actions such as reckless driving, driving under the influence, and distracted driving. These deaths were almost all preventable. Every day you will see a driver drifting from their lane, swerving, or speeding. The lack of education they received and the bare minimum to study road safety is what leads to giving the wrong people drivers licenses.

The importance of driver education is critical for any driver who is about to get into any vehicle. Drivers need to receive better education as many don’t know what to do in situations apart from basic road laws. If education is increased and better applied then accidents can be much more preventable as people will know what to do in case of an emergency. For example, a regular driver may not know what to do if they’re brakes fail. With proper education they can recall the information learned and hopefully recover control of the vehicle. This situation is rare but does occur. Reckless driving can be prevented if people understand the consequences of driving ignorantly and how to properly handle situations in which they may want to speed.

Some individuals of course would not care enough even if they were to receive the proper education for driving and drive recklessly anyways. However, there are still people who would be affected by a proper education, especially younger drivers. Teenagers who are barely getting behind the wheel are more likely to remember the given information and education, and apply it to their driving. Steps to reduce the number of deaths include better driver education. As well as being much stricter with road laws. Reckless driving should not be tolerated, this includes distracted driving. A driver should not prioritize time, their phones, or any other activity over their own lives, their passengers, or another potential victim. Stricter laws and more enforcement can prevent a reckless driver from being on the road again. If a driver is seen speeding and swerving through cars, then they shouldn’t get a second or third chance at killing someone.

I have seen plenty of drivers who were either driving recklessly, were distracted, on their phones, swerving, speeding, and have even been in a vehicle with these drivers. I have never been in a major accident or anything of the sort, the only accidents I can recall were just a small collison that left a scratch on the right side of the vehicle I was in. When someone is driving irresponsibly I always try to speak up, however, some drivers drive with an egotistical attitude. It is very selfish of them to drive in this way but they are so self centered they don’t view it from the perspective of a victim. If education can help put someone in the shoes of a victim and hopefully prevent them from making bad decisions on the road, then money spent on education will be worth every penny.

I wish to become a professional commercial driver, so road safety is an important topic to me especially since I have an interest in professional driving. I don’t plan to make it my full time career, but I do want it to be a part of my life. As a regular driver, however, steps I can take to ensure that the roads are safer is to drive defensively at all times. Constantly checking your mirrors is important and planning out the high speed chess game of driving. Never getting distracted can be difficult as distractions are all around us but keeping those distractions as far away from you as a driver is important. Planning ahead and being ready at all times is important. Being educated and following the instructions of the road, law, and any other person who is in charge of the traffic is pivotal to preventing collisions and fatalities. Education is important but there is only so much I can do as a regular driver. I can protect myself as much as I can but I can’t control the actions of another.

In response to this inability to make the roads safer as just a regular driver, I want to pursue a career in computer hardware engineering and work with technology surrounding vehicles, especially semi trucks, in order to make our roads safer. My goal is to make the roads safer and prevent road fatalities all together. A person shouldn’t have to worry about getting into a car accident due to the ignorance of another driver every single time they commute to work, school, or a restaurant. Driver education is a necessary and fundamental process for drivers in order to prevent and reduce accidents on the road.