There are millions of people who drive on the road each day. From people going to their jobs, to people going on long road trips. Not all of these millions of drivers are correctly licensed or have the legal paperwork to drive a car. With millions of drivers there are also millions of phones being in use in the cars as well. Over my sophomore and junior year I worked at Donatos, a pizza chain restaurant, and while I was working there one day over the summer going into my junior year the whole store heard a crash and we all looked around and ran outside to see what had happened. There was a three car wreck with it taking place because someone swerved into the opposite lane causing a head on collision and another car behind him couldn't break in time. We got the people in the accident water, ice, chairs, and rags to help until the ambulance and police got there. We also were rerouting traffic because the wreck took up the whole width of the road. As all of this was occuring the older looking driver who caused the accident came out with no scratches and was smoking a cigarette outside of his car while on his phone. Once the police got there we found out he was drunk and was smoking a cigarette to get the smell off his breath. They also suspected he was on his phone because he was glued to it ever since the accident happened. What took place that day made me disgusted that someone could carelessly do something like this because he didn’t endanger just his life but he could’ve ended up taking others as well.
Driver education is very important, and not just for the newly 16 year old drivers but also people that are older. In order to reduce the number of deaths and accidents on the road that happen every day, I believe making people take their drivers test every 20 years could reduce the death rate. People who are in their 70’s and up, in my opinion, are the people who should stop or have to renew their drivers test to ensure they are still capable of driving at their age. The older we get the more stubborn we get, and there gets to be an age where things just don’t feel as easy as they used to be. This goes for driving as well. People who get behind the wheel should fully understand that they aren’t always just putting themselves at risk, but also the cars around them. Another way to possibly help further accidents from happening would be to use more signs around town and on highways that give people those little reminders on what they can and can’t do while driving. For example, click it or ticket. These little phrases can be reminders to people and could end up preventing some wrecks from occurring. One other step that can be taken to reduce the number of crashes on the road is to enforce the law more in a way. There are multiple signs everywhere such as speed limit and yielding signs. These should keep people out of harm's way, but since people can normally get away with driving a little fast or not fully stopping at a stop sign it can lead to more crashes and deaths since it’s not properly enforced. A solution to this would be to put cameras on the interstate to track the speeds of cars and send a ticket to their house. Doing this would make it easier on law enforcement because it’s not fair for them to have the responsibility to make sure every single person on the road is doing what they are supposed to do.
Steps I can personally take to become a safer driver on the road would be to make sure my phone is face down so I have no distractions and make sure I'm not driving when I feel overwhelmed or am under the influence of something that could impair my driving. When it comes to helping others become better or safer drivers on the road, it’s hard. Every individual has control over themselves and there isn’t much I can do personally on the road to help out others. Even though this is the case, making people renew their license after a certain period of time and having more signs around that remind people what they can and can’t do while driving would be a step in the right direction to keep people on the road out of harm's way.