An Everyday Thing Could Change Your Everyday Life

An
Everyday Thing Could Change Your Everyday Life

By:
Emily Johnson

There
will be accidents, whether they involve another car or simply a
mailbox, the fact is there will be accidents. There will most likely
never be a way to eliminate all accidents, but with proper
precautions and training we can hopefully lower the number of car
accidents. Drivers ed is more than learning how to start your
car and operate it with ease. More importantly it’s about learning
the rules of the road, such as the when to turn on your turning
signal, yielding, passing, and so much more. Before taking a drivers
education course you should already know the basics of operating the
vehicle, but it’s those little rules that are going to teach you the
specifics of driver. Something small like knowing when to turn on
your turning signal may not seem significant, but if you put it on
too late and someone behind you doesn’t notice, you could easily
get rear ended. Drivers ed teaches you the specifics to help
prepare you for driving on your own, so you know how to prevent
accidents.

Every
year there is a significantly high amount of deaths due to car
accidents. The biggest thing you can do to protect yourself is wear a
seatbelt. Sadly this doesn’t help all the time, as there are still
deaths while wearing a seatbelt. Wearing a seatbelt is so important
while riding in both the front and back seat. If you are involved in
an accident without a seatbelt you can easily be thrown around
causing major injuries. Although seatbelts can still cause major
injuries such as whiplash you would want that over perhaps being
thrown into the windshield. Another important thing is to make sure
you are the proper size for a specific seat, this is mainly for
children. While in most states there are specific height and weight
requirements for a front seat rider under a certain age some people
don’t follow those rules. If a child is too small to ride in the
front seat sadly the seatbelt won’t do much for them. Yes, while
seatbelts are typically the same size in the front and back seats
there is more protection in the back seat. Seatbelts and where you
sit in the car are just a couple small ways to stay safe in the car.

I have
been driving for four years, and have yet to be in an accident. Sadly
my brother cannot say the same, he has been in many accidents,
luckily all were minor for the most part. I remember one day when I
was a freshman I turned onto my road after school to go home and my
brother was in his car at the stop sign waiting for traffic. I waved
at him, turned, and then continued on my way. A good ten seconds
later I hear a big bang so I look back in my rearview mirror and see
his car smashed in the intersection, he didn’t see a car in his
blindspot so he pulled out in front of a car and was t-boned. I
slammed my brakes, put the car in park, and got out and ran to him as
I was calling my mom. When I got to him I asked him if he was ok and
he was fine, nobody was seriously injured. My mom was on her way and
my brother had called the police so I waited for my mom to get there
and then went back to my car and drove up the road to go home. I
wasn’t involved in the accident, but seeing and hearing it shook me
up. It was literally a block away from my house, and when I looked in
the mirror and saw his car I thought it was going to be way worse
than it was. Luckily everyone was fine, but my brother’s car was
totaled. If he would’ve looked once more before pulling into the
intersection he would’ve been fine. His split second decision
could’ve turned out way worse than it did.

As
drivers there are some things we could do to be safer. For one, every
time we get into our cars we need to buckle our seatbelts. We need to
put down our cell phones, and stay alert of all of our surroundings.
We need to always look twice when pulling out of places. If we all
drive defensively I believe we can reduce the numbers of accidents,
too many people drive offensively and that’s when accidents easily
happen. If we do all of these things we could prevent so many more
accidents. Paying attention and staying alert will help us to stay
safe while driving.