How To Drive And Live To Tell About It

I wasn’t even
in high school when my dad made a mistake that would shake our worlds
for months. It was a stormy night when he had received some upsetting
news and drove off. Despite the common knowledge to wear his
seatbelt, my dad wasn’t wearing his. Instead, he was driving over
the speed limit through the rain while being emotionally impaired. We
got the call that night. He had wrecked his car due to hydroplaning.
It shook my brother and I, but we had yet to see the damage that had
actually been done. The next day my mom drove us to see our dad.
That’s when we realized what not wearing a seatbelt could do. My
dad had lost his memory, and not just his memory of the wreck. He
thought that the glasses that I had been wearing for months were
brand new. He thought that my brother and I still lived with him,
despite the fact that we hadn’t lived with him since we were
toddlers. He was genuinely confused, but there was one thing he knew
he would do from then on out. He would teach us about driving safely.

Cases like my
dad’s occur daily. In fact, about 34,000 people die in America due
to car accidents. The importance of knowing about driving safely is
higher now than it has ever been. Ever since cell phones have become
more mobile, the amount of car crashes have drastically increased.
This is just one out of many of the reasons why we should all educate
ourselves correctly before sitting behind the wheel of any type of
automobile.

Driving in itself is a dangerous task, but what makes it even more
dangerous is being distracted or uneducated. There are several steps
that can be taken to reduce the amount of car crashes a year in
America. For one, enforcing the ‘no cellphone while driving’ rule
would be extremely beneficial. Also, although wearing your seatbelt
while driving is the law, I feel that there is more to be done to
enforce that law as well. Another great way to ensure that everyone
is up to date on the laws and safety of driving would be to require
anyone with a license to retake the test every decade or so.

Although I fully
believe in driving safely, even I slip up at times by checking my
phone while driving or forgetting to do something as simple as
switching my turning signal on when changing lanes. This is why I
feel that retesting every decade would be the best thing to keep all
of our minds fresh. Without a doubt, I know that I never want to be
in a wreck like my dad’s. I never want to put myself or others at
risk like that. So I will do everything I can to ensure that I will
drive safely and spread the awareness of safe driving.