Defensive Driving is the Only Way to Protect Yourself

Driving is a part of everyday life for just about everyone on this earth. No matter in what form you look at it, your mom taking you to school in the morning. Taking a bus to work, the train into the next town over. There are so many different types of vehicles and whether you are in control or just a passenger standing by that doesn’t change that when a crash occurs it is fatal. If you are lucky you will just get a couple of scratches and walk away fine. But for a lot of cases that is not what will actually happen. The only way to prevent it is to not go out on the road, an abstinence to vehicles. Which when it comes to most versions of abstinence it is an unlucky situation for most people. Even walking the streets could still cause you to be a victim of someone else’s crash. To be prepared is the only true way to prevent it. When you turn 16 and you take that permit test you have to study. The rules are set as to how you pass and fail. When 6 months pass and you are able to take a drivers test there are still strict rules set as to who can teach, how, and what you should learn first rather than later. Even when you earn that freedom you don’t truly have an actual license until you reach the age of 18. I didn’t have to explain this all to you, we all know the rules. We have lived those rules. But I have felt that to explain this was necessary because driver's education is now all about signing up for a monthly class in your local town. That foundation is your education and the main problem is that even though those rules are set in stone motion that does not always mean they are executed as they should be. To learn how to drive can be exciting but if people do not take it seriously that is what can cause accidents, and the death of others and maybe yourself. If that foundation of which a driver is built upon was rushed and not taken seriously it can result in a reckless driver. Every time you step into a car you are putting your life and every person you pass at risk. As I said sadly there is no true form to prevent this but a good way to keep this from happening as often as it does. Is to follow the traffic laws that are in place. Slow for a yellow light instead of thinking you can get through. If a sign says do or do not do something then follow what it has set in motion. Rules are there for a reason. People do not just make stuff up because they thought it could be fun to mess with someone’s day. Also although it is the most obvious answer I could say but when you drive you can not assume everyone else is going to do the right thing. People like to bypass the rules and we are all guilty of it at some point but you can not just assume that the car in front of you is doing the correct thing. You must learn how to be a defensive driver that way if an accident is to occur you can be ready. Now as I had previously stated not all accidents result in death, but that is a lucky case. That lucky situation was me and my sister. This was 7 years ago when my older sister had just gotten her license. She was excited and loved to go out driving. My mother had rules for her that she followed but one day my sister had a cold and asked if we could go down to the gas station to get some snacks. We were told no but when my mom left the house we decided to go anyway. A 5 minute car ride. That was all that it took for her to rearend the car in front of her. We were more than lucky no damage or injuries occurred to either car and all people involved. You could come up with a list of excuses as to what caused that accident. But all it really was is that the car in front of her stopped abruptly and my sister was not paying attention and was not able to break in time herself. My sister was not being a defensive driver and assumed the car in front of her would not break like that. She also was having fun with her little sister and became reckless. She was able to show me that day how important it is to watch the road for more than yourself. I know as myself I can end up distracted occasionally but I am never able to forget the importance of being careful on the road. What I strive to follow is that ideology that everyone around you is going to do something wrong so make sure you are doing it right. You must prepare for other people to do the wrong thing or else you can cause an accident. Even if it can cause another driver behind me to hate me to just wave the car on through instead of gunning it forward. I would rather have that driver hate me than take the risk of the other car hitting my car. Driving is one of the most dangerous things any of us do in one day and we need to start thinking about it as such.