Whatever it is, can wait.

Approximately 90
people per day in the United States die due to an automobile-related
incident. Sometimes weather or car malfunctions play a part when
other times it is distracted driving or driving under the influence
that takes lives. Not enough people receive adequate education about
safe, undistracted driving. The only way to decrease deaths is to
educate drivers regularly and effectively. Drivers ed should
not stop after a person has taken their license test. Every few
years, drivers should take online safety courses, and every 15-20
years, drivers should retake the licensing examination to keep their
license. If such actions occur, more people would be motivated to
continue safe driving practices beyond the initial tests.

A little over a year
ago, a month after I had taken my driver’s test and gotten my
license, I was involved in a one-car accident. It had snowed (as it
usually does in February in Upstate NY), the sun was out, and we had
the day off of school because of the wind chill. I convinced my mom
to let me take her car to go pick up a friend. Not even a mile away
from my house, there was a foot of snow covering the otherwise clear
road. I had been driving the speed limit and attempted to slow down
before going over the snow. I hadn’t slowed down enough and
eventually began to slide back and forth across the road until I went
off the road and into a ditch. The car needed to be towed, and there
was about $3,000 worth of damage. I was driving by myself, not on my
phone, not distracted by anything else, but I had never had the
experience to know what to do in that sort of situation. Frankly, I
was uneducated even though I had spent the previous winter months
driving with my permit. Had I been more educated and experienced,
this may have never occurred. Thankfully I was not injured, and there
was no one else involved in the accident.

The best way to make
myself a better and safer driver is never to become comfortable with
breaking the rules. So many people that I know do not start out
texting while driving, speeding, or driving under the influence.
Still, they do eventually start those behaviors because they have
become comfortable and believe they won’t get caught. They may never
get caught, or they may cause an accident that kills someone’s
brother, mother, father, or child. It is smarter to take safe driving
seriously than to take the risk and put people’s lives in jeopardy.
Whatever it is, can wait.