It was a winter
wonderland outside where the snow was falling gently from the sky and
a thick sheet of snow covered the road with no dents but the imprints
of tires. On a crisp February evening, all was peaceful in my
neighborhood. Suddenly, the silence was broken by an engine of a 2005
Toyota Corolla that becomes increasingly louder each second as it
traveled 55 mph down one of the community roads. My uncle was racing
home, trying not to miss the viewing of the Superbowl, one of
America’s most watched events. As he was turning onto the road his
house was on, he skidded all the way into another person’s mailbox
and driveway. Thankfully his reckless driving didn’t hurt anyone
but he believes that he is a changed man after this event. The
problem, he believes, is not that he didn’t learn enough about how
to drive in certain weather conditions but how his emotions came over
his logical reasoning to drive safely.

Learning from what
my uncle has done, I can now learn to be a safer driver.


Some steps I take to
make sure I am not a hazard to anyone on the road involve planning
and patience. In order to make my journey as stress-free and safe as
possible, I make sure to plan before hand of how much time I need to
take from point A to B. Using technology like Google Maps and weather
apps, helps me prepare my journey for the safest roads to reach on
time. I also make sure that once I am in the car, I don’t need to
change the settings of the car during the drive. Removing
distractions like phones and adjusting the rear-view mirror is
essential in preparing ahead. Though these steps take a lot of time
and seem mostly tedious and annoying, they help insure that my
journey is safe and smooth.

However, the modern
world requires efficiency and cutbacks on anything that takes time.
Driving, nowadays, is a daily activity and shows how connected the
world is. Anything that a person does daily like brushing your teeth
or sleeping becomes more of a habit and less of a skill. Not many
people think before they are sleeping: Is this the right position for
me to sleep? To reduce the number of deaths, we need to treat
driving as a skill and not as a habit. We should continue to realize
the self-improvement that needs to be made and advocate for the
security of our fellow drivers through drivers ed.


Drivers ed
allows us to make mistakes. It allows us to fail without real
repercussions of injury and death. When we fail to educate ourselves
in driving, we endanger other people on the road. Our neighbors,
family, and fellow citizens. We can’t stop the stresses of life
like my Uncle and always prepare in advance. But we can educate
ourselves and take the necessary precautions to prevent endangering
our fellow drivers on the road.