Regard
all other drivers as Crazy


Glorious,
that is the feeling I had when I felt the sensation of having that
small card in my hand, with my picture, address, height, eye color,
date of birth, ID number and card expiration date. The card that
gives me the power and responsibility to be able to take a compact
2-4 thousand pound four wheeled transportation device on the American
roads and have that sense of freedom that everyone seems to talk
about, and now I am free to go wherever I please and no one can stop
me because I finally have the privilege as an individual who
completed the necessary steps to receive my license. My dad always
told me to “regard all other drivers as crazy” and that advice
has kept me on my toes whenever I’m driving. Not being able to tell
what others are thinking when driving is the scariest part, I was
told to learn how to read other drivers and I try to but it just does
not work out especially when everyone seems to be in a rush to beat
Austin Traffic. I still try to be cautious when driving and make sure
I always go through a routine check, seatbelt, mirrors, gas, engine
and break all for my safety and those who are on the road as well.
When I’m driving I tend to look around and I often catch drivers on
the phone, eating, looking at the back seat trying to grab something,
smoking, vaping, and drinking, I have even seen someone put on makeup
while driving and I thought that was just in movies. According to an
article I read by the Association for safe international road travel,
in the U.S. alone Over 37,000 people die in road crashes each year,
an additional 2.35 million are injured or disabled, over 1,600
children under 15 years of age die each year, nearly 8,000 people are
killed in crashes involving drivers ages 16-20, road crashes cost the
U.S. $230.6 billion per year, or an average of $820 per person, road
crashes are the single greatest annual cause of death of healthy U.S.
citizens traveling abroad. It baffles me that the statistics are
always there and everyone reads it, everyone hears about the
thousands of motor accidents that happen yet there are still millions
of drivers who make selfish bad decisions but carry on as if they are
all that matters on the road. Although things will never go back to
being the same especially in an age where technology is always
improving just about every 6 months it’s safe to say that drivers
will need to be extremely vigilant about how they drive. Personally I
plan to always stay focused on the road and abide by the laws because
that is all that I can do.



Citations

“Road
Safety Facts.” Association
for Safe International Road Travel,
www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/.