When it comes to driver education, the biggest reason to be as educated as possible is to save lives, you are in, what is essentially a death machine. Whether being a driver or working on it, the biggest thing is knowing that it is so dangerous because the more you understand the more you will be careful. You don’t have to know every single thing about your car but you at least need to know when it needs basic maintenance and how to drive it.
Basic maintenance includes oil changes, fuel filters, belts, anti-freeze and many more to keep from breaking down. A lot of these are good upkeep for the car but they also keep your car safer, because any sort of leak or issue could be bad for the environment and for you, pets, family members.
Personally, I’ve been in two wrecks, and one hit and run, one was with my mom which was not her fault and the other was my fault, and it was my fault. With my mom it was a very rainy day and there was very little visibility and so it ended up that we rear ended a car in front of us but my mom had been going slow and tried to swerve slightly out of the way in order to cause less damage to both vehicles. I was young, around 8 years old so I was really shaken up but I understand now that my mom did what she could to prevent worse damage. As for my accident, I was being a dumb teenager at 17 years old and I was on my phone texting and I went off the road and in a panic I accelerated rapidly and ended up hitting a gate and totaling the car. There was no one home, we ended up catching their maid a few days later and explained everything as well as on the car end it wasn’t leaking any fluids or anything but the frame clip had busted so it was unsafe to drive. I really learned a lot from that and now if I absolutely have to answer a call I will pull over somewhere to take that call. Even more important to do now because of the fact that I live in a bigger city with probably about four times the traffic on a day-to-day basis as well as probably 5-6 times more during holidays. The drivers here are absolutely insane too, better than another bigger city a few hours away but just as scary, I know the number of times I’ve almost been hit has been astronomical and then of course, I was out shopping and on my way home I was involved in a hit and run that ABSOLUTELY was not my fault. I had moved into the other lane and the car had accelerated and hit me causing the wheel well above my tire to be damaged and they sped off meaning they probably didn’t have insurance.
The steps that can be taken to be a safer and better driver, the first thing I think should happen is all cars should be equipped with a signal scrambler, to interrupt phone signal in order to stop texting and calling for that aspect of distracted driving. And I think another thing that should happen is any time that there is an accident they should have to take a safety class, I know that sometimes it’s required but it should be required for all. I also think they should have more restrictions on license, and who can get them but along with that making SAFE public transport should be available as well. There has to be a good environment on the public transit in order for people to want to get and stay on it rather than a toxic stereotype that seemingly follows public busses and other forms of transportation. I cant speak for many people but I really don’t want to ride the busses on the city I’m in due to drug addicts alone, that’s not including crazy people or any other people that wish to do others harm, but if there was a way I could guarantee that it wouldn’t be like that, I’d probably prefer to use public transit over driving myself, especially having to drive all the way across town for work, it would take way longer but I know that I’d probably be safer riding on that bus than driving to work, or at least there is more surface area that will protect you in the event of an accident.
I think that we should be better as people in order to protect each other but there will still be those who don’t care until something happens to cause a really bad accident or even something that happens to a family member, you have to be more self-aware to show empathy when something does happen.