What Needs to Change

In 2021, 31,720 people died in car accidents in America. Now, this number looks big, but not that big. Many people will look at this number and think, “well there are hundreds of millions of people in this country. That couldn’t possibly be me” but that’s not exactly true. Chances are that almost everyone in this country knows at least one person that was killed in a car accident. Some may be affected in very small ways, some in much larger ways, but that doesn’t change the fact that car accidents have had an effect on just about every person in the United States. I know what this feels like firsthand. In November of 2020 I woke up one morning with a text from my sister, now my sister and I don’t talk very much, so when I get a text from her, I know it’s something important. Her text simply read, “Call me.” My sister picked up the phone sobbing her eyes out, the only thing I could make out was her saying, “He died” And “He got hit.” One of her best friends had just been killed on his motorcycle by a distracted driver. I did not know this guy very well, but because it affected my sister it affected me. For this reason, it is important that the number of deaths caused in car accidents should be reduced.

There are a number of steps that can be taken to lighten the load that car accidents have on society in modern America. One step that could be taken is the implementation of national standardized drivers ed. At first this seems like a dumb idea because depending on where you live you will have to deal with different things on the road, but I’d like to rebut that by saying that the only way to solve a problem on the national level is to implement a solution on the national level. Although it is true that some people will never have to drive in the snow, or even parallel park, but that doesn’t mean that these things should be ignored in driving curriculum. If the entire nation were educated on how to drive in all various situations and conditions that exist in this vast nation, then they would be better prepared for any scenario that they may come across in their travels. Another step that could be potentially implemented is for driver’s test difficulty to be greatly increased. Germany, a country know for its extremely difficult driver’s tests had only about 2,450 people die in car accidents last year even after considering that America has almost five times the population of Germany, they would still have almost 20,000 less deaths caused as a result of driving a car. The whole point of this is to have fewer incompetent drivers on the road. If the driver’s tests are harder than prospective motorists will be forced to study harder and practice driving more, which will lead to an overall increase in the average skill of drivers nationwide.

However, it will take more than national intervention to solve this problem. It will take Personal intervention as well. There are lots of things someone can do to improve their driving and make the road safer for others. One thing I practice personally is good lane discipline. To ensure the safe and efficient flow of traffic, slower traffic needs to stay in the right lane. Another thing that someone can do to improve on their driving is to make sure they stay off their phones. Although texting and driving is something that is often attributed to younger generation drivers, it does not occur exclusively among that group of people. Plenty of older people are on their phones all the time. Texting and driving can lead to all sorts of problems, from missing a stop light because someone won’t look up from their phones, all the way up to car accidents, or even fatalities.

When my sister called me to tell me her friend had died in a car accident, we had very little information other than that an accident occurred. Come to find out that the cause of the accident was an out of state driver on a cold, icy, canyon road, who was going way to fast and was most likely on their phone. We also found out that he wasn’t the only person to get caught in the accident. A mini van with a mom and her two kids was also hit after my sister’s friend. The mom made it out, but the kids weren’t as lucky. The reason I made these suggestions was not to tell you what you want to hear. It gave these suggestions because I whole heartedly believe that if so much as one of the things I suggested were to be implemented, my sister would have never texted me, and there would be four less people to contribute to that statistic. I hope that there will come a day where we no longer see any deaths involving driving, and I thank you for your consideration.