You’ve probably been in the passenger seat of a vehicle at least several times during your life. Whether it be you’re being driven to school or taken to a doctor’s appointment, the feel of being a passenger is usual. Your senses are calm and undisturbed and you find no reason to have any focus on what’s going on currently. All you think about is the destination, where you just came from, or some other unrelated topic.
Now imagine yourself in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, where should your focus shift now? Can you understand what the multicolored signs and their symbols mean? What about if they were covered in ice and their contents unknown? What about if there aren't any signs at all? Who goes first? You or the car trying to turn in front of you to get to their destination? There’s an answer to all of this. It doesn’t matter if an intersection has been blocked, blacked out, or their lights and signs removed or defaced, there’s always a way through it because you can’t stop traffic. Several two ton machines barreling down a concrete path don’t stop easily, but do nevertheless because of their drivers working in coordination with other drivers. When you think of lights when driving, your mind goes to stop lights at intersections. But what about your stoplights? What if you brake and the red lights behind your vehicle won't turn on? There’s a way around that. What if you get onto the highway and your foot touches the floor along with your accelerator, with a little red engine light flashing in your dashboard as I have experienced? Can you tell me what I could’ve done to ensure perfect safety? What about something as simple as where you should turn the wheels when you park on a hill to prevent a rolling car? Can you tell me how to do that properly or if it’s something you’ve never considered at all?
All these questions and more sometimes can’t be answered by regular drivers on the road. These questions that these people can’t answer increases their risk of being harmed. Over 34000 people in the United States perish each year due to driving incidents, some of them, include a driver that most definitely could have answered these questions but got hurt anyway because of another driver who couldn’t answer these questions.
But knowing about driving laws and practices from the book doesn’t ensure safety. Knowledge without experience is useless. Get a parent or guardian and start off simply. Have them drive you to a spacious parking lot and get a feel of the steering wheel, acceleration, and brakes. Then start with a neighborhood at slower speeds and pick up a routine and slowly make your way up to the speed limit. Then with a qualified instructor, try out more “popular” roads and intersections. Many states have a highway test portion that isn't required as long as you intend to not drive on highways, but is a useful and inexpensive way to travel and should be practiced last after you learn everything you can about driving methods and such. The highway is the place where that has the least amount of accidents but is where the most fatal is. But once again, not a requirement and there isn’t a place in the United States that is unaccessible but from the highway.
Finally there is the test to get your probationary license that seems like the reason for all the build up of knowledge and experience but that's not the main point. Firstly, it's because most states now allow a sign off from a parent to get a license without a test and secondly and more importantly, so you drive better and safer and the people around you are safer. I’m not saying that following the book exactly is gonna make you the best you can be. There's people on the road that speed and don’t turn on their right blinker when exiting a roundabout and I don’t expect you to follow the book perfectly. That only way you can be perfect and near it is experience driving. Drive yourself to school, offer to drive your friends or family out when usually they’d be driving, just drive because you can, it's the only way to get better and best to start early so don’t wait to be eighteen to get your license because a statistic said younger drivers crash more than older ones, it's not an excuse.
Car collisions, even in the instances where everybody is safe, is a pain to deal with mentally and financially. By taking these steps you can’t ensure but sure can increase safety for yourself and others on the road and prevent yourself from becoming another one of the 34000 each year.