When it comes to driving, I believe that many measures must be taken to limit the number of deaths that happen yearly. Such accidents have never ruined my family or caused the death of a loved one. But I remember one day when I left middle school, I saw my mother’s car on the side of the road with parts taken out of it and a ton of damage. I did not know any information at the time and I feared the worst. I was worried that, as I heard the police sirens that maybe my mom was not going to be ok. This was one of the scariest moments of my life until I found an administrator at the school who was able to tell that she was going to be ok and that my mom was not injured or worse. However, the car that I had been driving in for my entire childhood had been totaled, and my mom was shaken mentally for a while when it came to driving. She was simply turning left into my school and was hit by a person going 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, racing through a green light. This ignorance on the road and having very little awareness of the true consequences is a large part of the problem with driving in today’s society.
I believe that many steps need to be taken to help reduce the number of deaths on the road and make driving much less stressful in today’s times. The first idea I would have is to eliminate the online drivers' education program. I was extremely worried about the idea of driving and believed that if I did not know all the information about driving, I would get into an accident, and it would be extremely bad. Therefore, I paid close attention to this program and continued to learn a lot about the road through it. Others, unlike myself, during the online program would simply click through the slides without reading them and just hope to do good enough on the quizzes at the end of the section. I have noticed a correlation between people whom I know who did not pay attention to the program and their struggles with the rules of the road. I feel that an in-class experience will lead to an increase in learning and understanding of the road. And this increase in knowledge and the power of consequences of dangerous driving will lead to safer roads throughout the nation.
On the same accord with the in-person driver's education class, I find it essential that all states require students looking to obtain a driver's license to spend time with a driving instructor. Many students are taught by their mom or dad, and while that is great, it can sometimes cause arguments or a lack of listening and understanding. Such as when my dad was trying to teach me to parallel park and I would get frustrated. However, having a second voice, my driving instructor Luz, I was able to learn how to parallel park with ease. I find that this second voice of teaching and expertise is essential in learning and should be mandated for many states.
Another idea that I feel needs to be addressed is the sheer fact of how much people speed these days on the roads. It can be very easy to see cops in the distance and especially with apps such as Waze or Apple Maps that notify users when cops are around, allowing people to slow down and not get caught by the cops for going well over the speed limit. However, there is a speed camera just minutes away from my school that constantly gets people at night and in the morning as they forget it is there, and it can catch people speeding and assign them tickets and a video of them speeding, so there is no possible way of them disputing a speeding ticket. I think that in this age of new technology, this is the answer to safe driving. I feel that if people are unsure where they might be checked for speed, then they will drive more safely and slower in all parts of the road, even when the police are not around. An increase in these cameras will lead to a decrease in speeding and what I believe, a decrease in the type of accidents that my mom was involved in.
I hope that fewer and fewer people have to deal with car accidents every year, and I believe that if we implement these changes by inspiring politicians and people in positions of authority we can decrease the number of accidents and help grow safety on the roads.