I have been very fortunate to not have any experiences of being in a car accident, as well as my family members either. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t come so close to encountering a life changing experience. When driving with my friends, I hated not being the one behind the wheel because I know my friends aren’t the most responsible. They go on their phone to try and change the song or text someone else. Like a normal reaction, I get anxious, shaky, and my heartbeat starts racing. I don’t drive with those friends anymore because I know they don’t take road safety as seriously as I do or as they should for themselves. I will give suggestions that they should put the phone away or let me do what they are attempting to do while driving because I still care for those friends and don’t want anything to happen to them. It pains me to see people that I care so much about give little to no care on how irresponsible they are being when it comes to driving. That’s why it’s important to take driver education classes seriously when you first start driving.
Most start learning how to drive as a young adult and while it is an exciting time and milestone in a person’s life, the learning has to be taken just as seriously. Driver education has always been important because the more you are aware of the rules and safety regulations when a person is behind the wheel, the more lives you are saving daily. Every day, you as the driver, not only have to drive for yourself but for others on the road as well that don’t follow road safety rules. If other drivers took road safety more as a responsibility than a “recommendation”, then it could reduce the number of deaths or even accidents that happen on a daily basis. Some steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths are having a passenger handle any notification on your phone like replying or sending a text. You can also control the number of people you are driving with at a time. If you get easily distracted by what’s going inside the car then limiting how many people you drive with is something you should take into consideration. Another step is if you are having feelings of sleepiness or drowsiness, then please pull off of the road into an authorized parking spot or switch with another passenger in the car. You never want to say that you can make it home or to your destination and never arrive like you said you would. My last suggestion would be that if you know that you are going out to drink, always have a Designated Driver or make sure that you are able to call an Uber from wherever you go.
All of the ideas of how to reduce distracted driving and the number of deaths are the same steps that we’ve always been taught as drivers, but it’s just the matter of proving your words with your actions. Sure, you may say that you are going to put your phone on “do not disturb” or even put it in your purse so that it can’t distract you, but anyone can say those exact words. It’s whether you choose to act on those words that can really lower the number of deaths that happen when driving.
As for myself, I ask my brothers to control my music or give me directions, but I need to get better at reading road signs ahead of time. I do tend to look at signs at the very last second and depending on the speed I’m going, it might be too late to understand what the street sign was. I admit, I’m definitely not the most perfect driver, but in my opinion I am one of the safer drivers that I know or even drive with. I believe I have my thoughtfulness to thank for that. Being thoughtful is a part of my personality, so I care for other people just as much as I care for myself. So when I’m driving and I think about picking up my phone just because I’m at a red light, I really think to myself and say, “How would I feel if I was the passenger in this moment?”. Now, maybe some people would say that they wouldn’t mind and maybe that’s because they are so used to driving with careless drivers. But, I’m willing to bet that there are others like me that would really appreciate a driver who cares for their passengers and their safety.
I hope you have learned something from this essay and if not anything else, I hope you take away that driving is exciting but also something that needs to be taken seriously. So do your absolute best to do your part in ensuring your safety and the safety of those around you when driving.