Name: Evan Kliewer
From: Citrus Heights, California
Votes: 0
In
America, driving has been an essential mode of transport for everyday
life for a century, with the introduction of Henry Ford’s
Quadricycle in 1918. Back then, as trains were the prominent source
for the deliverance of goods and services around the country, no
official guidelines were set for the automobile’s navigation,
resulting in frequent breakdowns and snide remarks of “Get a horse”
from passerby. Today, the car has improved massively in both its
efficiency and its lethality: Americans die by the thousands every
day from car accidents. While regulations regarding motor safety have
become quite thorough and are well enforced by the law, the
negligence of drivers-young and experienced alike- has become more
apparent over the course of the last few decades. Therefore, drivers
should remain educated throughout the course of their lives, even
after they take their driver’s test, as a thoroughly educated
driver is less likely to take action against what they’ve been
taught, especially if the lives of themselves and loved ones remain
at constant risk.
In
order for one to get a driver’s license, they must take a written
examination after studying the laws of the road-after reaching a
sufficient age to do so-and proceed to the driver’s exam, where an
instructor grades the driver on their every move. After the driver
obtains their license, however, they proceed to accumulate their own
habits on the road rather than imitate their driving test experience,
as it may have been a stressful and therefore the driver is less
likely to desire to return to that experience. From the new drivers
to the Class A license holders, one is always adapting to different
situations on the road. However, as many confident drivers may feel
above the basic safety rules of driving, and therefore tend to be
slightly more reckless on the road, to varying degrees. Therefore, to
reduce the number of deaths on the road, drivers should be required
by law to take a written examination on updated rules of the road on
an annually or perhaps a biannual frequency. In addition, the
increased use of law enforcement may prove beneficial to the decline
of the death rate of reckless driving to both passengers and
pedestrians.
As
technology evolves, major automobile manufacturing companies continue
to advertise their deluxe safety features on their newest products;
we may even be seeing self-driving cars sometime in the future.
However, it is essential that drivers remain educated and aware of
the laws on the road designated for
their own safety in
order to diminish driving-related deaths on the road; technology will
never be able to eliminate these numbers if human beings continue to
exercise ignorance over the subject matter. I have never been
directly involved in a car collision myself, but I have witnessed
some of my friends’ careless driving habits nearly get themselves
and others killed. New drivers should adhere by this rule, and
experienced drivers should remind themselves of it, including myself:
“If you can’t see, don’t go”. Millions of car-related deaths
could be prevented by simply taking note of this rule, which refers
to one checking both directions twice before pulling out of a
T-intersection, and to refrain from going until the entire road is
unobscured. Car accidents are the leading cause of death in the U.S.,
more deaths than smoking, substance abuse and even war combat occur
as a result of reckless driving habits. We can improve as a society
if our nation simply takes efforts to further educate our younger
drivers, and thus improve the safety and awareness of future
generations in regards to the automobile.
