Mason Long 28 May 2020 Driving is a part of our everyday lives that many people take for granted. Some people are not even fortunate enough to have a car, so they have to ride a bike or walk wherever they need to go. You might drive by someone on a bike and think “wow that seems dangerous riding a bike on the highway”, when in reality they are statistically safer than you. Nearly 39,000 people died in car accidents last year, while only around 850 cyclists were killed. That is an extremely large difference between the two, and yes there are much more people who drive cars than ride bikes but that is not the point. If people would take driving more seriously and use their full attention, then we could see an insane drop off in car accidents. It’s the 21st century, so we have all of this awesome technology that allows us to reach the internet from anywhere. But, is it really that awesome because almost 4,000 people died due to texting and driving last year. Distracted driving does not only harm the people in your own car, but the vehicles around you as well. Is that one text really so important that you have to take your attention off of the road. Going back to the people who ride bikes, the main cause of death is from distracted drivers. Driving is a very important skill, but we might need to rethink what we allow our drivers to do while using that skill. Most new cars have very nice hands off features for phones that let the driver continue to look at the road while changing songs. However, not everyone can afford a new car. There needs to be something implemented for older cars that make it just as safe to change a song, or turn up the volume. If you really have to answer a phone call, or respond to your mom then pull off to the nearest parking lot and do so. There are way too many people who die from car crashes every year for us to not do anything about it. We as a society can do one of two things. We can act on this right now to decrease the amount of deaths, or we can just wait and continue to let 40,000 Americans die every single year. The choice is up to you. Research Numbers All statistics came from nhtsa.gov