Safe Driving, Safe Roads, Safe People

10 years ago, both of my great uncles were killed in a car crash with a drunk driver. The driver was way over the legal blood alcohol content. Drunk driving is a type of poor driving that can change lives all around someone, not just their own life. Many people do not look ahead and foresee what their actions will do to people around them, and how those people will react. Drunk driving, and all bad driving in general, puts others on the road at risk. Texting and driving, driving while tired, driving while on the phone, driving while under the influence, road rage, any sort of distracted or aggressive driving puts everyone on the road in danger. Everyone must drive in a defensive manner to help prevent all accidents. Attentive driving can save lives. Driving is such an ordinary thing, nearly everyone does it practically every day, but that does not eliminate the risk of being involved in a potentially fatal car crash. Every 120 seconds in America, someone is injured in a drunk driving accident, and every 51 minutes, someone dies (“11 Facts”). No one can ever go back in time and retrieve a loved one from a car accident, or prevent one small mistake that led to the loss of life. Driving is serious business and lives are on the line every time the car is on the road. No matter how superb a driver someone may be, they can always be a better, more conscientious driver to avoid causing accidents and dodge foolish drivers; driving is already a dangerous activity and everyone should do their best to protect everyone else on the road.

Each year, 1.35 million people are killed in motor vehicle accidents. Included in that number are drivers, passengers, and pedestrians (“Road Traffic”). Car accidents are the leading cause of non-natural death for Americans traveling abroad and rank second in the United States—following unintentional poisoning. Car crashes impact poorer countries more because they have a less organized road system and don’t have strict ways of monitoring traffic. Found among that 1.35 million deaths each year are nearly 700,000 pedestrians. The brashness of the driver combined with ignorance of the pedestrian can often result in a fatal tragedy. In order to effectively reduce the number of global deaths, everyone must be taught proper etiquette as both driver and pedestrian. Both parties must act with caution and respect for the dangers of the road at all times; however, it is the actions of the driver that will ultimately decide the fate of themself and any pedestrian on the road. The pedestrian holds no power and anyone behind the wheel holds all the leverage. While the figures 1.35 million and 700,000 may only seem like numbers, each of those numbers have a story behind them. I see those numbers and I see hundreds of thousands of instances just like my great uncles. I see mourning, grief, anger. I also see the drivers at fault, the remorse they feel. Each of those numbers was a life, a child, a parent, a sister, a brother; they had a life and that has been ripped away from them.

To avoid tragedies on the road, drivers must remain alert at the wheel and understand the rules of the road. Oftentimes, I overdrive the conditions of the road. When roads are excessively busy or in poor condition, speed should be reduced to maintain sufficient time for reaction. A variety of factors contribute to a driver’s alertness including sobriety, being rested, and lack of distraction. A phone should never be in a place where it can distract or tempt the driver to look at it. My phone used to be in a slot in the dash where it could distract me if I got a phone call, but now it remains in the center console where I can prevent it from being a distraction. Seatbelts, speed limits, turn signals, all precautions that should be used when driving to maintain the safety of drivers and passengers in the event of a collision. While it is important for everyone to drive safely, there will always be bad drivers on the road. They may be road-raging, in a hurry, or simply poor drivers. Driving defensively and responsibly is key to avoiding an accident with said poor drivers.

Freshman year, the euphoria of being able to drive alone had driven some of my friends to be very irresponsible drivers. They were on top of the world. Invincible. Until they weren’t. It was after soccer practice, two of my teammates and I were on the way to a team dinner from the practice fields and the route required we drive about 5 miles on gravel roads. The winding roads were covered in a fresh layer of loose gravel that kicked up plumes of dust as we drove. Taking turns far too quickly, my friend at the wheel lost control around one of the turns. Drifting back and forth across the road, he tried to regain control, but to no avail. We ramped an outlet from a cornfield in one ditch before rocketing across the main road into the other ditch and colliding with an embankment. The car rose perpendicular to the ground before crashing back down. The three of us walked away from the crash with minor abrasions and the friend in the passenger seat had a concussion from a collision with the dash. We were relatively unharmed thanks to our seatbelts and a dash of good luck. As we got out of the car, we saw we had narrowly missed a large electrical pole. The crash surely would have been more serious had the pole been involved. The car was totaled but we were able to walk away with a valuable lesson: Life is fragile and driving—an act viewed as incredibly mundane—can end it in a flash…or crash.

Works Cited

“11 Facts about Driving under the Influence.” DoSomething.org, www.dosomething.org

“Road Traffic Injuries and Deaths—A Global Problem.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, 14 Dec. 2020, www.cdc.gov