Driving is dangerous, and oftentimes deadly. Although I have never been in a car crash as of the time I am writing this essay, I have gone through several close calls. I have been driving in the right of ways where others are not paying attention and almost t-bone me. My family, specifically my mother, has lost several friends to drunk drivers or motorcycle accidents. Blind turns, impaired drivers, and people who are just not paying attention make the road ways significantly more dangerous than they need to be. And this is not taking into account the volatile weather patterns creating slick conditions and darkness of late nights mixing with the overuse of blinding bright headlights. Even people close to me, specifically several of my family members, tend to drive more dangerously and recklessly than they should. They do this by not using turn signals nearly as often as they legally should, or looking at text messages while behind the wheel.
In order to prevent the vast majority of these accidents, drivers need to obtain better education on just how dangerous crashing can be and how easy it is to slip up and get into one. For example, a lot of drivers feel comfortable doing things such as texting or changing their music, or eating, while behind the wheel, and don’t realize just how volatile even these simple actions can be. If they knew just how easy and quick it was to die because of these irresponsible actions, many would take steps to stop. A significant number of drivers also go out drinking. They don’t plan to have a separate ride, assuming they will be safe enough to get home, or think that it’s only a short, safe distance, and will be fine. This leads to impaired or drunk drivers on the roadways. The majority of crashes are caused by these drunk drivers, as their reaction time, focus, and critical thinking skills, along with their depth perception and even balance, is heavily affected and impaired by the alcohol they consume.
If more people knew just how quickly impaired driving, whether from a distraction, or from being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, could turn deadly for not just them, but anyone else who happened to be around them, then perhaps some of them would make safer, more responsible decisions. Many things can be done to help teach drivers of these dangers, such as information-filled ads, driver license renewal tests, free online classes, longer merging lanes, and fixing dangerous blind spots on the roadways themselves.
The first thing that can be done to help educate people is to implement ads at gas pumps that contain statistics and facts about crashes and car safety for people to watch while they fill their cars with gas. Most people just stand there waiting, and won’t mind having something to watch. This is the perfect opportunity, because almost every driver goes to the gas station and gets gas at one point or another. Furthermore, those same ads can also be implemented at the newer public charging stations for electric cars. Posters of the same varieties can also be placed in these areas.
Another way people can be educated about such important car safety topics comes in the form of a renewal of drivers licenses. Instead of just retaking the photo, people should have to retake the test every 10 years, not only to make sure people are up to date on laws and regulations, but also to make sure people still have the cognitive ability to drive safely.
The third way we can help spread the information about car safety and the dangers of driving is a free online, government-funded class on the subject, complete with a certificate upon completion in the form of a car sticker that they can put on their car. Completion of this can also waive the need for a retest for their license one time to help encourage people to take the class.
Furthermore, another way to make driving considerably safer is to fix blind corners. All over the roadways in every town, there are blind turns and corners where drivers can’t safely see where they’re turning or driving. Brush should be cut back, mirrors should be added, or stop signs should be posted at these corners to help with these dangers.
Although there are countless more things that can be implemented to make driving less dangerous and save lives, one last thing I will mention is making merging lanes to get onto highways significantly longer. Some of these merging lanes are too short to where if a driver can’t get in almost immediately, they don’t have a chance to get in at all, and risk either crashing into a car behind them also trying to merge, or crashing into someone in the lane they’re trying to merge into.
So many steps can be taken to help prevent crashes and deaths, and educate people of the dangers of the roadways, and most of them would cost almost nothing to do. So many lives can be saved if we as a society did these methods, and in the long run, we can make the world a much safer place for day to day life.