In 2018, Alyssa was driving to town to run some errands for her mother. She had been driving for a couple of months now. Had her license and was feeling like she was finally prepared to drive on her own and be able to do anything she wanted. As she was heading toward town, she got a text message. She had been waiting for someone specific to message her back about an important issue she was dealing with at the time. However, that one look at her phone to see who messaged her changed her whole life. She crashed her car into the front of a Dollar General store and totaled her car. She was physically okay, with no permanent injuries just cuts and bruises. She was very lucky that day. However, her car wasn’t. The main issue she had after this event was getting into a car again. She was scared to even sit in a car for months. She slowly would take steps to be able to get back into driving again but it took her almost three years to overcome these fears. She has fortunately learned from her mistake and is now turning her phone on silent before driving anywhere and making sure there are no distractions before leaving her parking spot. She was very lucky however many others are not so lucky. Too many lives are lost annually due to distracted driving. This isn’t the only issue either though. Not having proper driving education taught will make mistakes happen a lot more and increase the death rates. Not knowing all the education needed to drive will not only get people pulled over but it will also make the chances of a wreck a lot more likely. The reason these people are pulled over is to teach them that what they are doing is wrong and they need to fix their mistakes before it's too late. punishments such as fines are a main way of teaching but if there is someone driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol they will be taken to jail overnight or until the substance wears off. Police do these things to help keep people safe and to get these drivers to understand they are doing wrong and need to fix these mistakes. These people are luckily caught and most will fix their mistakes but some aren't that is why punishments such as revoking of their license and spending more time in jail is done to get these people to stop putting themselves and others in danger. Police are doing their job to protect the drivers as much as they can but to also protect everyone else that could be involved.
To help drivers know everything they need before driving, we need proper classes that cover everything that is needed for driving. Sign reading, knowing turns, and practicing with doing these turns before fully going out independently will significantly improve drivers' education and reduce wrecks from poor educational mistakes. While also giving the extra practice needed before going on the road alone and possibly forgetting what is needed to be safe driving in certain areas with specific signs.
To tell you the truth, Alyssa is my cousin, and seeing her go through the trauma of that mistake was very tough. For her and myself. It tore me up and scared me. I don’t have my license but knowing just from that one distraction she ended up in a rough accident. Knowing these things motivates me for when I get my license to learn all I can to prepare myself for the road and practice as much as possible in improving my driving skills and reduce distractions so I don’t end up in the same situation or worse. As well as, avoiding others from getting injured because of my mistakes and carelessness. We have to not only think about ourselves when we drive but we also got to think about the lives of the people in the car with us, the people in the cars around us and even the pedestrians walking the roads to get where they need to be. One simple mistake or distraction can cost the lives of many. We lose so many lives in our society from distracted driving and poorly educated drivers. We need to improve these skills and education so these numbers can be reduced. We need to save as many lives as we can. Our time is short but when we don’t prepare ourselves for the future we can make our lives cut shorter than anticipated. Let’s do what we can to save our lives and the ones we love by educating ourselves and others.