Not For You, For Them

  As a new driver, it's nerve-racking. You can and will try everything possible not to hit someone or something. Does it still happen? Or course it does. No one can be perfect. Is it always your fault? Not at all, always is too much.
  The real issue lies in how much a person does to avoid it. If everyone is avoiding each other, no one should get hit. Why does it still happen? Carelessness, multitasking, not being focused. No matter how confident you are, you should always be careful of others.
  For example, in one 5 minute drive to get pizza for family night, I saw five drivers not use blinkers. Your blinker isn't there to tell yourself to turn. Your blinker is there because others need to know what you're going to do.
  A vehicle is at least one ton, two thousand pounds. The number only goes upwards. Apply the basic physics of mass times acceleration, we have an issue. A confident driver is a careful driver. Carelessness should cost more, as it can cost lives. Carefulness should be recognized, especially in a school based driving course. 
  Overall, the lack of care amounts to people lacking empathy. You take one horrible video and show the class. You show how someone becomes a, ever depressingly, mutilated mess because one driver didn't pay attention. You show how terrible the family does immediately after and you remind the students and even older drivers one thing. If it was you, would you be okay?
  The trauma and damage are only ignored online because of clips. Cut pieces of information to make a terrible thing a sudden ending. Our media, particularly gory movies, only demonstrate it more. We need an official cut from realism and the fictional constructs we make to escape our lives. It's a slow trend as of now, but as my generation gets older we'll only continue it. I hope this is the case at least.
  Sadly, again, the easiest way to provoke awareness is to bring the pain onto stage. Social media, driving while texting, the main basis of careless. Newer vehicles only enhance this issue by creating buffers to reduce accident chance. In fact, one of my friends drives at 70 miles per hour and messages just because his car will handle the basic adjustments.
  While this helps the issue, it also hurts it. Human nature is innovation to reduce necessary work. Ergo, we will continue to create more things to not do as much. Originally our innovations were to adjust work efficiency, balancing the act. Nowadays, we're trying to create an entire line of vehicles that do not require human input.
  I agree, the concept is amazing and sounds extremely safe. I disagree in it being a proper solution. Becoming entirely reliant on a tool makes your skill deteriorate. The self driving automobiles that come out will not be garnering my attention besides being extremely skeptical on how it functions.
  What happens when one sensor goes out? What if the power gets too low and reduces efficiency of a critical function? What if a person manually disables them just to do something entirely ridiculous, rendering the failsafes useless? Too many "What if"s for the system that was already working.
  The other issue is the rise of recreational use of substances. Even in the case of prescription substances, we still see issues in function. Another friend of mine just got off of an antipsychotic that got him into a wreck. The car was totaled, friends were luckily safe. It doesn't change how the substance can negatively affect the brain.
  Every coin has two sides, but that leaves a fifty-fifty chance. If you land on tails, are you safe? Or was heads a better choice? I believe automobile control needs a test every ten years after obtainment and every five after the age of sixty. Whenever you get a medication change, it should be required to list what it is and adjust for if you need to keep it. We have plenty of Uber drivers, why not make a commited user section and give a discount? 
  We have plenty of solutions if we accept that we are human just like everyone else. We can communicate, adjust, proactively change our system and society for the safety of each other. Inadvertently, we'll make the environment safer for ourselves. I understand that everyone will have their own opinions, but it truly does start with each of us being even a tad more careful and admitting some fault. I want the world to be as close to a utopia as possible, and I truly hope I am not the only one.