Incorporating Awareness Into Our Driving Habits

Incorporating Awareness Into Our Driving Habits

By Leah LaMont

The key to reducing the number of deaths caused by driving is awareness, which is exactly what driver education spreads. Reckless drivers often pay no attention to people with whom they share the road, which is what gives them the feeling of entitlement to speed recklessly, run that red light, or cut off the intersection. To be truly effective, driver education needs to focus on teaching students the two most important aspects of driving safely: learning the rules of the road and driving with awareness. The first step to learning to drive safely is learning the rules, so you can drive correctly. Awareness means very little without following the speed limits or heeding stop signs.

Beyond the written rules of the road, driver education really teaches the driver to be more aware on the road, which in turn creates drivers who are concerned about those on the road with them, not just themselves. Spreading awareness about how many people die as a result of careless driving is a way to convince people to drive more safely. When people see deaths caused by driving as something more personal than “another statistic on the news,” they will slowly start to change their habits. Stopping reckless drivers before they cause harm is the best prevention of driving-related deaths. Punishing those who speed and disregard the traffic laws with fines and mandatory driver education will discourage such reckless behavior before any accident can occur. Sadly, a close friend of my family was recently killed by another driver this past month just a few miles from my house. It was a simple grocery store trip, but the driver crossed the road into her lane and directly hit her car. Only the mother was in the car, but she was killed in the accident, leaving behind her husband and six children. This tragedy really highlights the dangers of reckless driving, as well as the need for change.

I have witnessed the dangers of distracted driving after having experienced a car accident myself, although thankfully not a serious one. My parents were stopped at a red light. The twenty-year-old girl driving behind us saw that we were stopped, so she started to slow down. While she was slowing down, she looked down at her phone. She did not realize that she was still driving too fast, and she rear-ended our car. This incident was an up-close example to me that distracted driving can be dangerous. In another instance, my family’s car was reared-ended again by another distracted driver. She was a sixteen-year-old who had just started driving a couple weeks before. While she was slowing down for the red stop light, she stopped looking at the cars ahead of her and looked down to grab her pop. Not noticing how close she was to the car ahead of her, she hit my family’s car with the front of her own. She was a brand-new driver, but she was missing perhaps the most important lesson for driving on the road: never take your eyes off the road. That is a perfect example of why the focus of driver education, especially for new drivers, needs to be on awareness and concentration on the road. Most injuries caused by driving come from such instances where the driver was simply distracted. Distraction from the road should not be a cause for any person’s death, which is why it is crucial to spread awareness of distracted driving and its dangers, as well as encouraging driver education and self-awareness on the road.

The easiest way for me to make the road safer is first by driving safely myself. As for my personal driving habits, I actively work to be a safe driver. My parents taught me that every time I drive, my car has the potential to be dangerous if driven irresponsibly. All drivers’ vehicles have possible dangers associated with them, so I need to be very intentional about awareness and defensive driving. To improve my own habits, I can be more aware of my driving in respect to other cars, making sure not to follow too closely, speed on the roads, run a light, or stop abruptly. Again, awareness is the key to safer driving, and it can always be improved. As for helping others become safer on the road, I can show my young friends how to drive safely. Rather than allowing bad driving to become a joke among friends, I can make sure to emphasize safe driving rather than joking about bad driving. The greatest impact that I can personally have on people who drive is by positively influencing my friends who are all newer drivers. The importance of driver education should never be diminished, because the lessons it teachers about the rules of the road and having driving awareness creates safer and more responsible drivers.