The Dangers of Driving

Jaysen Hall

The Dangers of Driving

Becoming a new driver is an important and exciting part in a teenagers life. A necessary part of earning your licence is completing a Drivers Education course. These courses are important for new drivers, by cautioning them to the risks and the do’s and don'ts of driving it helps to create a more cautioned, better educated, future of drivers.

While Drivers ed does a good job at emphasizing the need to be cautious, and to pay attention to your surroundings, there is a large area in which it is lacking. Speeding is one of the greatest causes of automobile accidents, and often goes unrecognized. Of course, before leaving the house most parents give the “be safe, don’t speed” talk. However, what does this really mean? Throughout Drivers ed speeding is looked at more as a given, rather than a serious issue. Most drivers consider the “speed limit” to be anywhere from the posted speed to ten over. In reality, going ten over the speed limit can increase your chance of an accident by 31%. For every 1% increase in speed there is a 2% increase in accident likelihood.

In my life I have been fortunate enough to be accident and speeding ticket free. However, I have had some close calls. While going around a turn that I take nearly every day in a 55 mph zone, I happened to be going around 65 and figured that it could do no harm to take this turn a little fast, there's no place for police officers to sit, so how could this go wrong? Accelerating into the turn I hit it going around 70 mph, and all went well until I lost control of the car while rounding the last end. The car started fishtailing and I swerved into the other lane. Thankfully, there were no cars coming and I was able to evade what could’ve been a fatal crash. Since this experience I have become a much more cautious driver, barely exceeding the speed limit wherever I go.

I believe that the easiest solution to the nationwide speeding problem is to lower all speed limits by 5 mph. Although it would seem easier to simply spread the message of “don’t speed, it’s dangerous”, humans are going to be humans, and are unlikely to change unless there is an actual law that changes. People will always exceed the speed limit, but the danger can be lessened, by lessening the posted speeds.