To think that driving, a task that most Americans do every day, is more deadly than fighting in a war. Most people would guess that fighting in a war, risking your life, is more deadly than simply driving. The reality is though, it’s not. Every year more than 46,000 people die in car crashes each year, according to the Annual United States Road Crash Statistics. In fact, from the year 2020 to 2021, there was a 10.5 percent increase in traffic fatalities. Using the Iraq War to compare, the war that lasted 8 years, ended with 4,424 deaths. From the year 2003, the same year the war started, there were 38,477 crashes and 42,884 deaths from 2003 alone. From 2003-2011, there were 286,591 crashes and 349,981 deaths. These numbers are big and might seem unreal, but remember, these numbers were someone’s kid. These numbers were someone’s mother. Someone’s grandmother, someone’s best friend. No one could have known that, that day, that fateful day, would ultimately, and randomly, be their last day. No time to say goodbye, no time to fulfill their life. It’s heartbreaking to hear, and it’s even more heartbreaking to live through these experiences. But the world can make a change. Adults are not the only ones at risk, but teenagers too. With the rise of more teenage drivers, it’s important to teach them the rules of the road and attend driver’s ed. It's important to instill these statistics in their heads and make them realize that car crashes can happen to anyone. Their friends can be in a car crash, or their family can. It’s important to teach kids about the importance of driver safety because not only can they get in a car crash, but they can cause one too. No one wants to live with the guilt of causing a car crash and it’s important to teach them now than to let them find out why drivers safety is so important. As someone who has lived with an avid speeder, I will never forget the anxiety my younger self felt every time we went out. Anytime we were on the road, I would hope I’d be able to go back home to my stuffed animals. Every trip I could feel any possibility of a car crash anytime the driver started speeding. I could feel my body being pushed into the chair as my heart rushed. I’m lucky to have never gotten into a car crash, even though there were many possibilities of one. Some people aren’t so lucky though. It breaks my heart knowing that kids, innocent kids, couldn’t even live to their first birthday. To never completely live your life and experience the wonders of the world is something I would never wish upon anyone. Now that I myself am I teenager, I am due to start driving soon. Knowing the statistics, knowing the possibilities, it’s scary to think that one day, I will drive to the store and never walk through the front door carrying the groceries as I greet my mother. I have taken it upon myself to learn drivers’ safety and I will encourage others to take it seriously. Being an advocate for drivers’ safety is one of the most important things someone can do. With a new generation of drivers, we can all help lower the number of deaths caused by driving every year. Even if it’s a minor change, with each slight change every year, we can lower the number of deaths significantly. I encourage everyone, either teenager or adult, to educate themselves more about being safe on the road, and to encourage others as well. To create change, there needs to be more and more people advocating for the same cause. There needs to be information being spread such as drivers’ education pamphlets in high schools to further spread awareness about the number of deaths caused each year and offers to driving schools. If there’s no initiative to improve driver safety, then there will be no motive to spread awareness then people will not improve their skills which will lead to no change in the statistics of car crashes. Driving is the most important part of a teenager's and adult’s life. It’s how they go from one place to another such as work and is an important part of our society. Everyone has an important responsibility to protect not only themselves but to protect other people too. I encourage everyone, no matter the age group, to advocate for road safety and save someone’s life.