Safe Driving and My Experiences

My father is a firefighter, from very early on in my life I have heard of terrible, gruesome things that happen on the road. I was taught that driving is a very serious thing. At any moment, even if I was doing everything right, someone could make a wrong move and it would be over for me. More often than not, it was the person not driving recklessly, driving drunk, or even just not paying attention that would walk away from the wreck alive.

When on the road, being able to take all of the things around you and being able to understand what is happening as it is happening is everything. You won’t be able to do this without being educated. Paying attention during driver’s education courses and taking it seriously is the difference between you getting home safe or being paralyzed in an accident. Understanding what kind of damage a two ton brick going 60 miles per hour can do is what really changed how I see piloting a vehicle. It is seriously no joke at all, it can kill or seriously injure someone within a second. Understanding the road can lower the risk substantially, with more understanding comes more comfort and less stress, less stress means you’re less likely to make any erratic movements and that makes for a safer road for everyone.

To lower the number of deaths, just pay attention, you cannot control the people around you, but you can control yourself. My father always tells me and the people he helps after accidents that they are called accidents for a reason, no one purposefully goes out of their way to hurt themselves and others. But even if they are accidents, they can be fatal and there are ways risk can be lowered. Staying off of your phone while driving, looking at the cars around you and understanding their movements as well as yours can lower your risk greatly. One of the most common causes of accidents, sleepy drivers. I work late shifts sometimes, and when I get off I am very tired. I catch myself zoning out and every time I do I wonder how it could have been different and how I could have hurt someone else or myself. Another simple way to make the roads safer, don’t drive under the influence of anything at all, whether it be alcohol, marijuana, or even some medications. Most important of all, DO NOT SPEED. The speed limits are made very carefully and are calculated to ensure the safest conditions for all drivers and pedestrians on the road. Let’s say the speed limit is 50 miles per hour and you are following the speed limit and a kid runs into the street. Between the time it takes to think, act, and physically stop, you have a 175 foot stopping distance. Let’s change that to if you were going 10 miles per hour above the speed limit and you were going 60 rather than the set 50, it would take you 245 feet before you stop. That is a full 75 feet more, almost the length of a football field. As well as pedestrians, you need to watch out for cars that may be stopped in front of you as well. Whether it is a car that you could rear-end, or a pedestrian you could hit. Speed changes everything.

Every day on my way to work, I pass a site on the side of the road with eight crosses. It was five years ago when two families driving on our wet road going sixty miles per hour collided and died on impact. It was terrible to hear about, they were just going along their way and then the course of their lives changed to end there. It could be anyone on the road anytime, anyday. I have never been in an accident personally but I have had many close calls, and seen many accidents occur as well.

To be a safer driver, all you need is to understand your risks and take them into account every time you make a move on the road. Put on your seatbelt, do a checkup of your vehicle every once in a while and make sure it’s safe to drive, remove yourself from distractions whether they be your friends in the backseat, the music you’re listening to, or that bag of fries in your passenger seat. Any distraction can cause an accident, no matter how small. Just look forward, check your mirrors and your blind spots when you’re changing lanes and don’t succumb to road rage. Deal with yourself and yourself only, if someone else is driving unsafely just get out of their way and help yourself. It may be what gets you home that day.