Play The Part, Drive Smart!

As a person who is first stepping into the responsibility of becoming a driver, I believe that driver education is crucial to surviving daily life as an adult driving to work, doing shopping, picking up your future children from school, etc. and with close traffic and high speeds on roads, every second counts when you intend to drive to another destination by yourself or with others in the vehicle. One minute, you can be trying to talk to someone in your vehicle whether on your phone or in-person, and the next you could get into a crash that can severely affect you the rest of your life, or even cut it short. On the road, traffic that is calm and orderly can become a tense environment for drivers, especially for those who are in proximity of drivers who happen to be under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or even commonly experience road rage. Although I have never been in a traffic accident with such a situation, I had gotten into minor accidents before with my mother when drivers around us were either negligent of their surroundings or knew what they were doing and tried to flee the scene of the accident to avoid being identified. Other than those times, I had never experienced a serious accident that lead to any real injuries or deaths within my family thanks to sheer luck. If me and my mother weren’t as lucky, however, I dread to think of what consequences would occur…

Fortunately, with correct practices being implemented, I believe we can reduce the number of traffic accidents and make the road a lot safer for everyone. For example, per se, let’s begin with the common problem of distracted driving by texting. I admit, people with busy schedules and lives may be seen on the phone at the wheel a number of times, but the question is does it really matter when it comes to the risk of traffic to take a phone call or answer an email? I believe that it shouldn’t be an important task when you drive, but I can understand why people may disagree with me. As a solution, perhaps driver’s education programs could further emphasize the importance of not using your phone while driving through interactive case studies and videos of traffic accidents in order to scare some of those who are chronic text-and-drivers. Plus, for those who do not always follow the rules of the road outlined in these programs, there are a bunch of affordable items online such as bluetooth earpieces, phone stands, etc. to help make sure you won’t need to necessarily keep an eye on your smart device while at the wheel, potentially reducing the probability of a distracted driving accident. Moving forward with my argument, let’s move on to the problems with driving while intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, or both. Although I never have and will never take substances like that, I understand that adults and teens who have readily access to these types of substances (whether illegally or legally) either have mental disorders they cope with by substance use, are being peer pressured, are experimenting, and/or have one of many other seemingly appropriate reasons they have to do so. But, on the other hand, you could risk your life on the road with your inhibited skills which could result in an accident, fatal or not, that you could regret forever if you were fortunate to survive it, possibly worsening mental disorders and perhaps disabling yourself or any other victims permanently. Despite not having truly foolproof ideas for preventing these accidents from occuring, I have a few to possibly reduce the number of accidents involving abuse of substances. First, driver’s education courses and mandatory 24-hour courses could perhaps offer mental health services such as counseling for those who regularly abuse or use substances such as alcohol and drugs, along with the regular reinforcement of ideas of practices such as designated drivers, calling taxis, etc. to (hopefully) make a better impact with younger drivers in order to slowly reduce the number of intoxicated driving incidents over the next few years as generations pass. Finally, let’s cover aggravated driving, which I believe is the hardest of most of the problems to really correct given how people can be very different in how they handle scenarios they believe are unfair to them, how they are under stress of getting from point A to B in a set amount of time, or just how they convey common road situations that cause people to become tense on the road quickly. Once again, the issue itself is very difficult to correct by changing or adding a new factor into the mix, but maybe like intoxicated driving, driver education courses can offer services such as anger management seminars and teach some techniques that can help a driver relax and stay focused in a situation where it’s hard to stay calm, such as mindfulness techniques. Perhaps it may not help at all for some, but it doesn’t hurt to attempt practices to retain focus and remain wary of your surroundings. Heck, you may just save lives by doing so.

In a nutshell, new experiences are something that can be easily changed when a factor becomes something undesirable or unfavorable to the person experiencing it. Although I admittedly have yet to get my permit (which is fortunately soon), I believe like many others that the national traffic accident rate could slowly become smaller over time if everyone makes an effort to practice safe driving techniques. Then, in a ideal world where these practices are well-used, most newer generations of drivers would likely never encounter or become a part of an accident that could negatively affect their life along with how they view the most efficient and popular use of transportation nationwide. To new drivers, then, I ask you this; do you really want one of your first experiences driving to be an accident that could cost a fortune in hospital bills and car repairs, or do you want an experience that would allow room to reinforce skills so you could become better at driving and have an easier time avoiding an accident later on in your life? The answer is mostly as simple as you think: if everyone plays the part and drives smart, then we won’t cause an accident that can break loved ones’ hearts.