
Name: Grace Vincent
From: Virden, Illinois
Votes: 0
Driving: A Privilege
26
January 2020
Driving:
A Privilege
Driving
is the most dangerous activity you will do in your entire life, with
nearly 1.25 million deaths due to fatal crashes each year. At a young
age, Americans are given this great responsibility of driving whether
they are ready for it or not. While driving, people make choices and
those choices have positive and negative outcomes, and it is up to us
drivers to make the correct choices and practice safe skills while
driving to avoid injury and death. To do this we need to limit our
distractions and focus everything on the road ahead when we are
behind the wheel.
First,
driving is a big responsibility that we earn through classes and
practice. In Illinois, we all had to pass a drivers ed
class that taught us the rules of the road before we could drive.
After the class you are only permitted to drive with your parent in
the car until your sixteenth birthday. The early stages in your
driving education is crucial to determine whether you become a safe
or reckless driver. In class you learn about road signs and common
knowledge about the driving skill, and then you practice this
knowledge by driving with parents. Understanding the rules of the
road and then having an adult to drive with you and guide you through
different driving scenarios are important first steps to be a safe
driver. Drivers ed can help drivers have a background of
knowledge on certain situations that occur when driving.
Understanding the rules of the roads and how to react at different
times will help reduce the amount of fatal crashes that occur every
day.
Not
only does education help reduce fatal crashes but taking the proper
steps to avoid crashing will also cut down the devastating losses we
experience each year. The first step to safe driving is putting on
your seatbelt when you first get in the car. People that do not wear
their seatbelts are thirty times more likely to be ejected from the
car than those who do wear their seatbelt, and getting into the
routine of putting it on when you first get in the car is a great
habit to create. Turning down your music and limiting your
distractions, especially in busy areas, is another important step to
safe driving. You want to be able to focus all your attention on what
is going on around you so that you do not accidentally miss something
and end up in a crash. Finally, putting away your phone is the most
important step to be a safe driver. Every year cell phones lead to
nearly 1.6 million crashes, and those can be reduced if you choose to
stay off your phone while driving.
A
few months ago, I was in a car crash due to the inability to judge
how much I needed to brake so I could avoid hitting the car stopped
in front of me. This was not necessarily a moment of
irresponsibility, but a weakness that was exploited. This incident
could have been avoided if I had just given a little bit more
concentration on judging how close that car was to me, but I was not
giving driving my undivided attention, which led to a crash. For me
to be a better driver I need to pay more attention to the little
details, like how close the car in front of me is or if there is a
car next to me in my blind spot. If I were to concentrate more on
every move I make while driving, I could limit the dangers I could
cause to myself or other people.
In
conclusion, driving is not an easy task and it requires all your
attention. With the increase in technology, there is an increase in
distractions while driving, and teenagers need to know how to cut
those distractions out. Safe driving is something everyone chooses to
practice by making the right choices. Will you make the right choices
the next time you are behind the wheel, or will you choose to risk
your life and those around you so you can break your concentration
for one moment?