Hurry, Before It's Too Late!

Driving is a right of passage. Your parents do everything with you until all of a sudden you have completed your year of prison when you are 15, and its finally time to step into the driver seat alone. The problem with this is: people (especially kids) are often to focused on driving all by their-self, driving fast, looking cool, etc. How many people do you know get into the driver seat at age 16 (or any age for that matter) and are worried primarily about safety? Most people become comfortable with driving the older they get, and begin to focus on other things while driving, such as texting. Being safe behind the wheel is something that needs ti be addressed in America today.

The rules of the road are put in place for a reason, obviously. Most wrecks are caused by human error. I am not claiming that technological and mechanical issues do not exist, because the definitely do. However, according to a recent Digital Trends article, human error is the cause of 94-96 percent of all motor vehicle accidents. That being said, there’s a lot of room for improvement. Many of the wrecks caused by human error are because the driver is uneducated regarding the laws/rules of the road, or the potential danger that comes with distracted driving. Either way, increasing driver awareness and drivers ed would drastically reduce the number of fatal accidents, simply because considerably less accidents would exist (notably the fatal ones).

There are a number of steps that can reduce the number of deaths while driving, and I believe that one of them is stiffer punishment. Punishment provides incentive to do what is right, and with the current regulations, plenty of people seem fine with breaking the laws even when they know the consequence. If the punishments were more severe, and more strictly enforced, we would see a major change in driving behavior. Secondarily, I believe that all smart phones should come with a regulator that doesn’t let you access your phone should you be traveling at or above speed “x”. Now I understand passengers may not like this, but until there is more advanced technology that allows us to only block off the drivers phone, this would simply stimulate conversation in an otherwise plugged-in society.

I personally have been in one accident. I was leaving school (on the first day of my junior year nonetheless) and I was rear-ended by my best friend… what are the odds? I ended up colliding with car in front of me, and it all could have been avoided had everyone been paying attention and following the safety standards set in place.

I have plenty of room for improvement when looking at driving safety, and I can start with paying more attention to the road, and less attention to the passengers and radio.

In conclusion, safe driving is a trait that should be adopted by all of earths inhabitants, before it’s too late