The Dangers of Driving

Jordanne
Arace

Driver
Education Initiative Award: In the Driver’s Seat

There’s
too many people in the world who don’t know what real consequences
are; they don’t think anything bad will ever happen to them and
they can do dangerous things whenever and however they want. This
just simply is not the truth though. Nobody is invincible and we are
all susceptible to accidents and harm. Even you, the teenager who
just got their license and thinks they know everything in the world,
can get into a car accident. I believe that if people became more
aware of the true dangers of car accidents, the number of fatalities
related to them could possibly decrease. While most people are
somewhat knowledgeable about the dangers as they have taken a drivers
education class when they got their learners permit, it usually
doesn’t seem real. When you read about a girl who got passed away
due to a car accident in which she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt
properly in a textbook, it tends to just go right over people’s
minds. The danger of driving needs to not be sugar coated and showed
to students exactly how it is- painful, tragic, and real. It’s very
very real. While I have not personally ever been in a car accident,
someone very close to me has. This person was texting and driving
while also simultaneously speeding on the highway, this led to them
drifting and then overcorrecting and hitting a guardrail. I remember
the night that this happened, it was really scary for me and I
realized then just how dangerous that 5,000 pound vehicle that can
move a mile a minute can be. This close person to me who was in the
accident was not hurt which was very lucky for them, but more
importantly their reckless decision did not hurt anyone else. That
accident changed my perspective immensely, to the point where I can
no longer ride in a car with anybody who thinks that it’s okay to
text while they drive. It’s incredibly heartbreaking when somebody
is injured in a car accident that they cause, but it’s even more so
when somebody else who is not at fault is also. I believe that that
is the most major factor that keeps me from doing dangerous and
distracting things while I drive, I don’t ever want another person
to suffer because of the poor decisions that I have made. Driving is
not an easy task and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. There are too
many fatalities caused by car accidents every single day and if
everyone were to become even just a bit more educated about how real
this danger is, that number could and most definitely would decrease.