Name: Nathaniel Bowman
From: Canal Fulton, Ohio
Votes: 0
According
to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, there were 65,140 car accidents in
2017 alone. The scariest fact to that statistic is that the
number of accidents had been the lowest in Ohio within a five year
span. However, although 2017 recorded the least amount of
accidents in the five year span, it led the years in most fatalities
of that span (544 fatalities). Although there is an increasing
amount of people on the roads today who are under the influence of
alcohol or other substances, people who think they don’t have to
stop at the stop signs, or people who think it’s alright to go
above the posted speed limit, none of these are the leading cause of
car accidents; the leading cause is distracted driving. With
this large amount of distracted drivers on the roads today, it is so
very important to practice defensive driving.
The
definition of a distracted driver is one who is not paying all of
their attention to the road or others driving their vehicles.
Whether a person is talking on their cell phone, eating something, or
texting someone, no matter how minute the disruption is, the driver
who is not totally focused on the road is distracted.
Sometimes, though, it can be difficult to see the signs of a driver
who is distracted. When someone who has had too much to drink and
makes the incorrect decision to operate a vehicle and then proceeds
to go out on the road, another driver can usually see the car sway
back and forth on the road and then take caution. Even in
extreme cases of people texting while driving this same observation
can be made about the driver. But, it is nearly impossible to tell
if there is a distracted driver. Perhaps there is a mother whose
child starts to cry in the backseat out of nowhere and she turns to
look to see if the child is alright. If this situation were to
occur, there would be little room for reaction time for another
driver to brake, if need be, and avoid the mother’s car. It
is a situation like this that demonstrates why defensive driving is
so important. If one is not constantly aware of their surroundings
as they drive, they are just as a threat to other drivers as those
who are distracted or driving illegally. This is why is driving
school one of the main philosophies that is driven into the students
minds is to be aware and always be a defensive driver. Although it
may seem like it only applies in sports, the phrase, “offense wins
games, defense wins championships” is actually applicable to
driving. Sure, one may get away with a couple non-intelligent
actions when no one is around, such as speeding a little or not
coming to a complete stop at a red light or stop sign, but one day
there will be somebody around and the chances of that irresponsible
driver causing an accident will multiply.
Defensive
driving is an important quality to possess not only to protect
drivers from distracted ones, but from those who are indeed breaking
the law. In 2017, Ohio State Highway Patrol arrested 27,346
drivers who were operating a vehicle while impaired. Whether the
drivers were abusing alcohol, abusing illegal pariphanilia, or were
simply affected by the medication they were on, the drivers should
not have been out on the streets. The sad thing is that we, as
a society, are not learning from our mistakes. In 2013 there were
24,130 OVI arrests and the numbers only increased from there. From
2016 to 2017, there was a 2,118 jump in the number of arrests. This
shows that the roads are only becoming more filled and dangerous
because of the amount of people who think it is ok to operate a
vehicle when they shouldn’t be. Another astounding set of
facts are the amounts of speeding citations handed out by the police
each year. In 2014 alone, there were 385,453 speeding citations
given out. To put into perspective, that means about 1 in every 30
people took home a speeding citation in 2014 alone. Now if we take
the number of speeding citations from the past five years, which is
1,883,621, that means about 1 in every 6 people received a speeding
citation, assuming no one took home multiple citations. The
reason why these facts were made is to show that driving in today’s
day and age is scarier than ever. Big name vehicle companies can
state that cars are safer for people, but frankly it was hardly ever
the cars part to begin with, it was the people driving them. And if
1 in 6 people received a speeding ticket within the past five years,
then that proves the point of people being dangerous. This alone
should scare people into being a defensive driver. What is difficult
to understand is the whole “1 in 6 people” fact is only applied
to those who only were speeding. It is impossible to be able to
count the number of times people commit acts of rudeness, such as
cutting another person off or not yielding to another driver when
told to. This is why it is important to be a defensive driver.
Accidents can be caused by anything, illegal or not. And in today’s
society, there are more things now to be distracted over than in any
other time in history. But no matter how big a distraction is, the
desire to look to it will dissipate quickly. Going back to the
scenario of the mother and her child, although the mother would want
to turn to comfort her crying child, she should restrain herself and
wait to pull into a safe environment where she can park the car and
then go back to check on the child. It is situations like these
that if done correctly will not only make the roads a safer place,
but may save lives.
