Emily
Brock
Driver
Education Initiative

30
Sept. 2019

It’s Called Driving Not
Dining
Many
people have been involved in or even killed from car accidents.
Society does not realize how much impact they have behind the wheel,
and knowing how to prevent issues can save lives. According to the
Association For Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT) crashes are
the biggest cause of death in the US today. About 8,000 of the people
that are killed in accidents range from the ages of 16-20, and that
number does not include injuries. The irony is these accidents can be
both predicted and prevented.

Some
steps that can be taken to reduce accident numbers is by to make it
mandatory for new drivers to attend a drivers ed class.
This would teach road safety and defensive driving. Many people
overlook the importance of road safety and completely disregard
safety precautions. It is these people make the road dangerous for
everyone else. I have noticed that when I'm on the interstate, and
it's raining some people fly past me going over 80 miles an hour.
This has caused me hydroplane, thus an accident could easily occur.
Not to mention, the splash of water that hits the windshield making
it even harder to maneuver the car.

Having stricter laws on the
speed limit would drastically help, as well as introducing mandatory
increment weather speed limits. This would be hard to monitor, but I
feel this is a step that needs to be taken to enhance road safety.
A
few years ago I witnessed a car flipping completely over onto its
roof. I was on my way to a gymnastics meet. There was some snow on
the ground and it was super sunny, with the road appearing to look
dry. My parents had stopped the car and pulled over to call 911 and
give any information about the accident that they could. I was left
in the car because my parents didn’t want me to go into the busy
traffic or see something potentially horrific. Thankfully, it was a
single vehicle accident, with one occupant and she had no injuries.
She had been eating and driving as well as letting a friend know she
was running late. She is lucky because she could have died, and
possibly had killed others, all because of rushing and texting.
In
order for me to be a better driver, I keep a safe distance from other
vehicles. I also use my turn signals by giving the other drivers
ample notice of my plans. This does not only help me stay safe on the
road but it helps keep others safe by giving them enough notice so
that they don’t cause people behind them to ram into the back end
of their car. We all need to monitor the weather and drive
appropriately for the conditions. Finally we need to put our phones
and food away while we are on the road, getting to our destination
safely is the goal.