Keenan Greenall

5/21/19

In the Driver’s Seat

I have been
driving since mid-March of 2018, I have thankfully only been in 1
minor accident where I was at fault. The accident happened because I
was speeding while behind another vehicle on a back road, while going
through a blind curve, two police cars, with lights and sirens on,
passed in the opposite direction. Because of this, the vehicles in
front of me stopped very suddenly and I was, admittedly, distracted
by the police, when I turned to look in front of me it was too late.
I slammed on the brakes, my wheels locked up (my car has no ABS) and
I went right into the back of the car in front of me. Like I said it
was very minor, and thankfully the driver of the car in front of me
did not make an insurance claim. After this I have always kept at
least two car lengths between me and the car in front of me, with
more than four car lengths when it is raining. While I should have
been doing this before the accident, I am thankful that I learned it
with such a minor incident. I think this shows just how important
drivers ed is when it come to the number of driving related
deaths because now that I have learned my lesson on safe following
distances.

Sadly, I believe
that the steps that need to be taken to reduce driving deaths are
ineffective most of the time. From what I have personally seen many
young drivers don’t have the attitude to drive safer or stop
texting and driving, it seems to take a tragic event to make people
realize just how dangerous it is and that, in my opinion, is
unacceptable. Drivers need to take the warnings seriously because its
not only them that is put at risk it’s all of the other drivers,
pedestrians and other innocent civilians that are put in danger.
Unfortunately, I have seen friends and family driving irresponsibly,
I am glad to say that they used to do this, I am the kind of person
that says what I feel and I have often spoken of their distracted
driving habits to them and told them of the dangers and repercussions
they could face. As for myself, I am always trying to become a safer
driver for example; learning my braking distances at different
speeds, being more observant to the cars around me, and never using
my phone while driving.