4
De La Torre

Samuel
De La Torre
11th
grade
5/28/2019
Steele
Canyon HS
Reckless
and Distracted Driving
Have
you ever wondered what the number 1 cause of death in America is? You
probably think that it’s cancer, heart diseases, or any other
chronic illness. Actually, the number one cause of death is car
accidents. I believe that there are many ways of preventing these
accidents.

You
probably get in a car everyday and either drive yourself or sit in
the passenger seat and just get in and play your music and drive
trying to get to your destination. But, did you know that there’s
always a chance that you might die while driving. For instance, Ken
Kolosh the manager of statistics at the National Safety Council
explains that people don’t realize that they face death everyday, “
We tend to fixate or focus on the rare, startling event, like a plane
crash or a major flood or a natural disaster, but in reality, when
you look at the numbers, the everyday risks that we face and have
become so accustomed to form a much greater hazard ” (Kolosh). Many
people believe that they have nothing to worry about while driving
because they believe that they will die from a disease, or a natural
disaster, but you are at risk everyday while being in a car. I have
many ideas on how to prevent car crashes. For example, I believe that
car companies have made a good job creating a device implanted in
your car that makes a light in your car blink and a noise come out of
your speakers if you don’t put your seatbelt on. This makes the
driver and the person in the passenger seat know that they have to
put their seatbelt on, but what if we could take this a step further
and make it so that the car doesn’t move unless you put your
seatbelt on. Two years ago, 4 boys from my city were involved in a
car crash, three of them had their seatbelt on and they all survived,
while the other one didn’t because he didn’t put his seatbelt on.
His death could have been prevented, but he decided to be
irresponsible and there were consequences for his actions.


I
believe that self-driven cars could also prevent many deaths because
even if the driver is on his phone there would be no way that he
could be responsible for a crash, because the car drives itself. If
self-driven cars could be invented and perfected, so that there is no
risk of getting in a car crash many deaths would be prevented. There
are also many pedestrian deaths every year which are directly
influenced by reckless driving. If you are driving recklessly you can
not only kill yourself, but kill people in another car, or kill
pedestrians. For example, I have a nine month-old brother and he
needs a lot of attention and my mom has to take care of him everyday
while driving. Even though he sits in the back seat, my mom is alway
watching him through the mirror and if he’s crying, she has to give
him a pacifier so that he calms down. Even though she’s not under
the influence of drugs or alcohol while driving, she is still
distracted because of my brother and she could get in an crash if she
doesn’t devote her full attention to driving. Thankfully she has
never been in a crash. Furthermore, I have also seen people driving
at night with their headlights off, which can lead to a crash because
you’re not able to fully see the road ahead of you. This could
prevented by making headlights activate as soon as it starts getting
dark outside, so that people that forget to turn their headlights on
or simply don’t want to turn them on don’t get in a crash because
of this.

If
we put our minds to it, there are many ways in which we can solve the
problem of car accidents. From a device that doesn’t let your car
move unless you have your seatbelt on, to a self-driven car. There
are many ways of preventing the many deaths every year and I believe
that the most important thing to start with is being responsible when
you drive and focus only on driving, or you may regret it.

















Works
Cited
Mazzei,
Patricia. “Opioids, Car Crashes and Falling: The Odds of Dying in
the U.S.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2019,
www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/opioids-car-crash-guns.html.