
Name: Lynna Truong
From: Dover, MA
Votes: 0
Safe Driving Saves Lives
Safe Driving Saves Lives
By Lynna Truong
Earlier this month, I received news of deaths due to two car accidents. The first death was of a forty-year-old father from my town. He was in his yard when a drunk driver hit him. The second accident, a van that went off a cliff due to unsafe conditions, led to three deaths, including the death of one of my dad’s friends. Every day, people get into car accidents. Some, as I’ve experienced before, cause nothing more than a dented hood. Others can lead to deaths, cutting short the lives of innocent people, all because of a moment of preventable bad driving. One way to prevent the loss of these millions of lives is driver education. Simply learning about the rules of the road, safety precautions to take, and the possible dangers of driving — this is all it takes to save lives.
From the steps you must take when entering a car, to rules of the road, driver education is crucial to ensuring that new drivers, especially young new drivers, are safe and safe to others. Before you even consider driving, you must access your ability to carefully operate a vehicle. Ask yourself if you are tired and unfocused or injured. If you are, ask someone else for a ride or call a cab service. And of course, if you are under the influence of any substance, you must do the same.
When you get in a car, put on your seatbelt and make sure that your passengers also have their seatbelt on. Then, adjust your seat, wheel, both side mirrors, and rear-view mirror. If you aren’t familiar with the car, make sure you know important switches beforehand, such as turn signals, windshield wipers, and hazard lights. Also, make sure all distractions are taken care of. This includes turning off phone notifications and setting up music and GPS beforehand.
When you’re on the road, it’s equally important to apply what you have learned in driver education. As teaching yourself these rules can be overwhelming, driver education is crucial in ensuring that you learn all that you need to. Make sure you know the meanings of traffic signs, when you must yield the right of way, and steps to take when doing maneuvers such as three-point turns, parallel parking, and even switching lanes.
All these rules and practices ensure that both the driver, their passengers, and others on the road, including pedestrians, are safe. But it isn’t just new drivers that need to know these rules; experienced drivers need to be actively aware of them too. Being an experienced driver does not mean you can be less careful, as everyone is prone to making mistakes when they get too comfortable.
I have been driving for a few months now, but even I have had close calls due to feeling too comfortable with driving. Just one moment of reaching for the radio button, can lead to getting slightly too close on one side of the lane, which is why I’ve made a promise to prepare myself before I switch the gear into drive and to always keep my eye on the road when driving. I’ve also formed other safe driving habits. I leave the house on time, cross intersections only when it is completely safe to do so, follow the speed limits, and even drive in silence sometimes so I am more focused. Since my sister will soon start learning how to drive, I will teach her what I’ve learned as well, and will continue to remind others to drive safely throughout my life.
According to the World Health Organization, 1.35 million people die from car accidents each year, but even one is too many. Lowering this number is a group effort, so play your part and be a safe driver.