Effortlessly Driving

Driving is a scary thing but often as a passenger or driver of a vehicle, we do not put much thought into it. We get into our vehicles carelessly and drive without putting forth thought in the idea of the power we have. We have the capability of making life or death decisions. In the matter of seconds, your life could change because of your reckless driving, or someone else’s driving. When it comes to educating people on driving and informing individuals of the dangers of the road, it will take more than a class you take, a commercial you watch but instead a connection with a person and a relational matter.

In society today, we are impatient and physically can not wait for things to happen in time. We, as humans, selfishly want things to happen in our own time. Going off this idea- no one is going to “tune in” to the television when it is a sappy commercial talking about wrecks, a boring class with a teacher spitting facts, or a drivers manual with small font and the “Times New Roman” font that is difficult to read. If we want people to listen and realize there is an issue, we have to make it interesting to them, such as influencers speaking out on incidents that have happened to them. People are so much more likely to listen to a “famous” person speaking out about a dear friend being in a wreck than an old man on television asking, “Have you ever experienced a bad wreck, and wish it didn’t happen.”

My first step in reducing the number of deaths related to driving is to inform individuals in a way the audience will feel an emotional pull. When you pull someone’s heartstrings with a story, they are more willing to listen to what you are sharing with them. A story that draws the reader in with emotions is more likely to leave the reader wanting to make a change to the way they are living. Encouraging someone to change from their old ways is difficult but can happen through stories such as moments people lost a loved one in a wreck, a drunk driver killing someone you know, or a story of the way you overcome injuries from a serious wreck. Wrecks and accidents that are close to the individual of a story resonate with those listening because you can tell the person who is sharing the story truly cares.

In second grade, I played soccer on The Pink Tigers team. It was so much fun. We were known for our fun colored socks and our fierce team. On Memorial day of that year, my soccer teammate, Lina, was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. She was coming home from a day at the lake. Imagine if you were 8 years old and you had just had an amazing day with your family, and your whole entire life, dreams and goals were all taken from you because someone decided to drink alcohol and get behind the wheel. One dumb decison made by a man who cared more about his alcohol than keeping people safe changed the lives of her family and all of the people around her. We were not close friends but I will never forget when our whole team had a balloon send-off in her honor. It was such a sad day because of the tragic car accident. Accidents like this happen daily and stories similar to my friend Lina’s take place multiple times a day. Yet still, the number of driving deaths has not increased, you would think stories, similar to this one, would make an impact.

Drunk driving collisions are a common way deathly accidents happen but, another leading cause of accidents are cell phones. In society, we are constantly seeking validation from other people 24/7 on our phones. We, people in society, have become impatient and do not know self-discipline. That being said, people do not have the ability to resist looking at their phones the instant it vibrates or waiting to answer the snapchat from someone. It is a proven fact that when your phone buzzes it releases serotonin. If that fact does not show you how addicted humans are to our phones, I do not know what does.

In conclusion, driving needs to be taken more seriously. I believe if we continue to share stories before we skip straight to statistics, we will increase the amount of people that take action after sitting through “another boring lesson about driving safety.” It is important to inform individuals of safety but, we need to do it in a way that relates to people.