Safety on the Black Pavement

Driving is a necessity when it comes to daily life and navigating around my state. It can also become a deadly event in the matter of seconds. In the United States, about 34,000 citizens lose their lives due to car accidents every year. Being distracted, losing control of my own vehicle, and intoxicated driving are some of the many scenarios that can lead to someone losing their life on the road. Navigating on the roadways can seem like a fun experience for many, but for others, it’s the border between life and death.

Safety is everyone’s number one priority for friends and family, but sometimes they tend to forget about the rest of the world. People that don’t keep others in check while on the street should not even be driving in the first place. They should have learned that safety is the key thing to keep in mind back when they were in driving school. Driver’s education is important when it comes to reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving since it demonstrates the do’s and don’ts of the road. Adults are well-notified about what they can and cannot do on the road during their driver’s education, which means that they should have no excuse when they get pulled over for committing a traffic violation.

In addition to driver’s education, other steps that can be taken in order to reduce the number of deaths relating to driving are adding DUI checkpoints more often and increasing police surveillance on city streets. Adding more DUI checkpoints will decrease the amount of intoxicated drivers on the road. Currently, most DUI checkpoints only occur during major holidays like New Years, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Having checkpoints only during the holidays is not enough to decrease the amount of intoxicated drivers, so I believe that increasing the amount to every weekend should be enough to battle this issue. Along with weekly DUI checkpoints, increasing police surveillance would also help with the issue of speeding and hit-and-runs. As of 2022, 68.4% of drivers have admitted to have gone 10+ miles over the legal speed limit. If more police cars are patrolling the streets, the amount of traffic violation tickets will increase but the amount of dangerous drivers will possibly decrease.

I personally have experienced a car accident in November of 2022. I was with my parents headed to my step-sister’s house in Pacoima, CA. We got off the Interstate 5 Freeway on Van Nuys Boulevard. When there’s 7 minutes left until our destination, we stop at a red light, then a white Toyota Tacoma rear ends our vehicle with a major impact. Luckily, none of us were hurt and our Ford Explorer only suffered a paint scratch. The driver got off and realized what he did and apologized. My dad left him off the hook since it was not anything major. Both of us drove our separate ways. To this day, I still question how the major impact only resulted in a small paint scratch.

Now that I am a 17-years-old, I can drive on the road with the supervision of my dad. I plan on applying for a driver’s license for the summer of 2023. As I am familiarizing myself with the open road, some steps that I can take to become a better and safer driver while also helping others become safe on the road are to always follow road signs and to never text and drive. The road signs are there for a reason, to keep drivers safe from one-another. These signs help keep the road safe and guide me towards my destination in a safe and timely manner. While following road signs is important, texting and driving is a heavy violation on the streets. Sending one text can possibly lead me to rear-end somebody if distracted. Having my phone on silent and keeping it in my glove box will prevent me from becoming distracted and keep other drivers safe.

The roadways can be a fun but challenging path to go through. Just being distracted for one-second can be the difference from arriving at your destination to getting into a car accident. As citizens, we need to keep the roads safe for everyone, regardless if we know them or not. We all want to arrive where we need to be, but that’s not possible if we’re driving recklessly because of being intoxicated or being distracted. We need to keep in mind that safety is the number one priority in life.