Are you a distracted driver?

I still remember the day that my dad got into a car crash like it was just yesterday. We were on our way to watch KU VS K-State football game, we were all excited for the days adventures. I was about 10 years old sitting in the backseat looking out the window when all the sudden I heard a big BANG. My dad had looked away from the road for just a couple of seconds and before he knew it, we were in the back of someones car. It was a 3 car crash and it ruined the whole rest of our day. Luckily, no one got hurt and everything turned out to be fine but, for some people getting in a car crash doesn’t always turn out that way. Drivers need to be attentive every second that they are on the road.

Driving is a difficult task to learn which is why we need more driving education. Parents are a great resource for new drivers to learn from but some parents are not so great at teaching so we need professionals to teach our young drivers. Putting a new driver in the car with a professional teacher for a couple of hours helps tremendously. I would know because I went through a driving program and came out a better and more confident driver. My 2 siblings and I took a drivers ed class when we were much younger and learning how to drive. So far, neither one of us has gotten into a car crash. I think that drivers ed classes should be added to schools and make it a required class so that everyone has to take. Doing that would make sure all new drivers go through some driving education.

Driving is getting more and more dangerous the more technology advances. Drivers are becoming more distracted by their phones and other devises. We need more laws about people on their phones and driving. We also need harsher punishments to keep drivers from reaching for their phones. We, as a society, also need to make it more normalized to not pick up your phone while driving when it buzzes. Everyone should start telling our family and friends to put down their phone when driving. If you are in the car with someone who picks up their phone while driving, you should not be ashamed or embarrassed to tell them to put it up. Parents could also download an app that shows if their kid is on their phone while driving and could possibly punish them if they are to teach them to stop.

Driving will continue to be a dangerous thing; accidents will always continue to happen. But, there are steps that can be taken like make harsher laws on being on the phone and driving, make punishments for texting and driving harsher, and making students take a drivers ed class. This won’t prevent all accidents from happening but it will help with a lot of accidents.