Warning: That Machine Comes with a lot of Responsibility

It was a Monday night in February when my cousin texted me asking me if I was ok. She heard the news that a delivery driver from my job at Frank’s Place got into an accident. I told her I was ok and went on with my night thinking my coworker was ok too. The next morning, when I unlocked my phone, I realized it was my coworker who was hit by a drunk driver on her way back to the restaurant. As of this moment, she remains in the hospital.

It should be no surprise to anyone in the U.S. that there are many driving fatalities that occur. About as many as 34,000 U.S. citizens die each year, which is nearly as many U.S. soldiers who died fighting in the Korean War (“Driver Education Initiative Award – Annual Scholarship Opportunity”, Millet). Even with all these citizens dying from car accidents, not many people are taking as many steps as they should to reduce this number. Some actions that can reduce accidents are silencing your phone, leading by example, and improving the driver’s test.

The first thing that every driver needs to do is stop texting while they are driving. Yes, this does seem obvious, but it really is something that needs to be taken more seriously. We are not going to take this more seriously until we make it as socially unacceptable as drunk driving. One way we can achieve this is when before you start driving, turn off your phone. Keeping it on is going to make you want to look at it when you hear your ringtone or a notification sound. If you want to keep your phone on so you can listen to music, then turn on “do not disturb” mode.

Another way to reduce accidents is to have parents and guardians lead by example when it comes to driving. Too often, parents and guardians will tell their children to put their seat belts on when they themselves don’t even put them on. It is also the same with texting and driving. They will tell their children not to text while driving while they are texting while driving. This hypocrisy is what will cause kids to become distracted drivers. By having more parents and guardians lead by example, we can reduce the number of accidents caused by texting while driving.

All this talk about how many people die in car accidents should really emphasize how much more seriously drivers’ education should be taken. I cannot tell you how many times I have come to a three- or four-way intersection, and nobody knows who goes first. We need our DMVs to create stricter permit and road tests. When I took my permit test, I only needed to answer 15 questions of the 18 correctly. If we are going to have safer and more knowledgeable drivers, then they need to be able to answer all 18 correctly. If we want to make even more sure that we create safer drivers, then the number of test questions needs to be increased. There is a lot of material covered in driver’s manuals that is too much for 18 questions. Driver’s education is important, but it needs a bit of improvement for it to become more effective at reducing accidents.

Driver’s education is important to me, like a lot of other people. However, after what happened to my coworker, it is even more important to me. Even before that accident, I have almost been hit by people who did not put their turn signal on when turning or had the wrong one on. It is very scary. I am not saying implementing these changes will be easy, especially for some drivers. However, I believe this will all be worth saving at least several thousand lives. Implementation of these changes is good and all, but another thing that all drivers, including myself, need to do is to be 100% honest about how we drive. Thinking you are a better than average driver makes you pay less attention, which is one of the main causes of accidents. We need to be aware of the mistakes that we make while driving so that way we do not make them again. We will not be able to reduce the 34,000 to 0, but if doing all this can reduce that number by several thousand, then that means those several thousand get to live their lives a while longer. That’s several thousand people who get to enjoy life with friends and family for a while longer. Isn’t that worth changing our ways for?

Works Cited

“Driver Education Initiative Award – Annual Scholarship Opportunity” DmvEdu.org, www.dmvedu.org/scholarship/.

Millett, Allan R. “Korean War | Combatants, Summary, Facts, & Casualties.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/event/Korean-War.