Shifting perspective on the driving safety.

As was illustrated on the www.dmvedu.org the highways fatalities are over the top. The rate has gone down, but not significantly.

Since my college major is psychology I would like to evaluate and analyse the situation from the psychological point of view and propose possible solutions of this problem.

While driving laws and regulations provide significant amount of order and safety on the roads, I believe, the situation can be improved. What is the intent of having a law? To enforce a desirable behaviour in order to provide safe (and hopefully) productive environment for the population. Why is it necessary? Unfortunately (regarding the topic of this essay), it is obvious that there are irresponsible people, who underestimate the dangers of operation a several-ton weighted machine. But, since law enforcement can only get us this far and is not eliminating the problem completely, there might be additional ways to improve this situation.

Generally, car accidents happen, because people are not relating to the possible danger. It’s kind of a “bad things happen, but not to me, because I’m too smart/quick/special” attitude. A person, who experienced the car accident first hand or had a friend/relative go through this horrible experience is much likely to be more careful behind the wheel or think twice before getting into the driver's seat while intoxicated.

My proposal would be, as follows, to make the danger more personal, instead of something completely abstract and unlikely to happen. To be more concrete the mandatory videos can be made at the DMV locations and each time one goes to renew the driving license, pass a test (or some other mandatory procedure) they would be obligated to watch the video. The video should contain the real stories of people who have suffered through car accidents (including thought process before the accident and the change of perspective after, or, for example “a letter to the past you” format). There also can be a set of different videos in order to make them more relatable - an office worker would watch a video with a similar looking man/female, a mother would watch the video of another mother, a teenager - of a kid from the similar age group. I would say this is somewhat important, because the main goal is to give people the opportunity to step in somebody-else’s shoes, and the more relatable it is - the better.

I understand, this process can be tedious, but it might be simplified by only showing videos to people that have a certain amount of points on their license. There is no need to for a person, who is very careful of the road to spend their time watching a video like this.

To sum it up: we have to evoke deep understanding, instead of the fear of punishment. And the best way to understand is to have an emotional response.

To answer the question about the steps I personally take to keep safe on the road: I always try to stay mindful. I understand this answer might seem very general, but it would take another essay to explain it step by step.

N. Samadzelkava