My day started out like any other day. I took care of my dog and lounged around my house until it was time for me to go to work. I put my uniform on and started my drive. After a few minutes of driving, it started raining, but it wasn’t the kind of rain that had large raindrops and made it hard to see. It was rain that was just a little harder than sprinkling. But, before I knew it, I hit a puddle and lost control of my car. I was on the interstate in the lane third from the left, but I swerved through the other two and hit the median wall with the front part of my car, then spun off of it and slammed the back of my car into it, and finally, my airbags went off. Those few seconds were some of the scariest in my life. Luckily, I didn’t hit anyone, and no one hit me, and my only injuries were a cut on my arm and some soreness for the next few days. Driving was really scary for me after my accident because my parents said there wasn’t anything I could have dont to avoid it, but I felt like there was something more I could have done. From this experience, I learned that I was never adequately taught how to avoid hydroplaning and what to do if I did.
After my accident, I made sure to learn how to respond when my car starts hydroplaning and learned better ways to drive in the rain. To be a better driver, I am always aware of my car and the cars around me to practice defensive driving in order to make me safer. There will always be accidents and rainy days that will make me have to adapt, but I’m making sure that I can handle any problem thrown at me.
Driver education is one of the best ways to reduce deaths from driving. While there are driver education classes, many people never even take one and learn from their parents, possibly leaving out important details for abnormal situations. Driver education classes provide information on how to handle many different situations while driving, but they can also tend to be boring which makes students zone out and not actually learn the material. In order to foster better learning in these classes, the classes should be more interactive with hypothetical situations and the common question of “What would you do in this scenario?” Additionally, making these classes smaller will increase the effectiveness of the classes as people are more likely to engage within a smaller group. The test to get a driver's license is also usually very relaxed. For my test, I drove my instructor around for 10 minutes before he decided that I was capable of operating a 3,000 pound piece of machinery for the rest of my life. While I do believe I’m actually very capable and would consider myself a good driver, I don’t believe that that can be determined after a ten minute drive through a neighborhood. So, driving tests should be more comprehensive and include more than just a simple drive. They should include more questions of how to properly handle the vehicle in situations that are less than optimal in order to ensure that drivers know how to be safe in any scenario.
To reduce the number of deaths related to driving, driver education is the first and most important step. This includes teaching how to drive a car in theory and actually putting the theory into practice. Driving can be dangerous and should be treated as such. While it’s very exciting for young drivers to get their license, it’s also a new responsibility of making sure they’re driving in a manner that keeps them safe and others on the road safe as well. Additionally, testing for driving should continue as long as a person is driving. I’ve been in the car with many adults whose driving is worse than mine and even a few who made me genuinely scared that they were going to get in an accident and hurt me or others. Therefore, I’d propose a driver’s test every 10 years to ensure that everyone driving on the road stays safe. But, I know this isn’t likely, so I would encourage more promotions or advertisements for the benefits of driving safely like, for example, how some insurance companies provide extra benefits for being a safe driver which promotes good driving habits. No one sets out to be a bad driver, but making everyone educated on how to be a great driver will promote safer driving and keep people on the roads safer.