In my town, people can’t seem to drive correctly, or they choose not to. They make sharp turns, don’t use blinkers, run through stoplights, etc. My family has never been in a car crash thankfully, but I’ve seen the aftermath of one about three times in my time living in the United States. All three of them were brutal but thankfully the cops reacted quickly. I never did find out if they all ended up okay, but it wasn’t my business. However, I’ve been dangerously close to being in a car crash myself because drivers aren’t paying attention. I have seen some pull out their phones while driving and some weirdly swerved around in the lane they were in like they were distracted. It is alarming how uncaring some drivers can be and even more shocking how some of the drivers I know haven’t gotten into a wreck. Despite all this, it would be hypocritical of me to not mention my wrongs in this instance. I have misread signs and not paid as much attention as I should have when I was first starting to learn how to drive but even so, I’ve made similar mistakes when I was distracted. I once turned into the completely wrong lane because I misread the GPS I was using. Thankfully nobody was hurt, and I was able to turn around, but I think about that mistake more often than I would like. Although, I’m glad I haven’t made worse mistakes.
One of my classmates is notorious for going fast and he crashed into another classmate on the road next to my school. They were both unharmed, but it caused a lot of damage to his car, not the one who got hit because her car was big and sturdy. This is one of the many reasons women tend to pick big cars. If they are hit there is more metal in between what hit them and themselves, so they feel much safer. However, in the event they hit someone they can essentially become a fast-moving wrecking ball to anyone who happens to be on the road. Another accident I’ve seen is when someone crashed head-first into a brick wall that separated a road from the backyard of a neighborhood near my neighborhood. The car looked totaled, and many people were gathering around to help or simply just driving by slowly to watch before moving on to their own business. I heard that accidents tend to happen around there because of how sharp that turn is.
Because of all this, it is important to improve Drivers Ed. so things like this don’t happen as much. When I was studying for my permit test, I found myself only memorizing the answers and not truly learning the material. Even now I couldn’t tell you even a little of what I was supposed to be learning at the time, that’s how little of an impression it made on me. This is concerning, there is important information in the material that needs to be properly learned if anyone wants to drive safely. I also don’t find the next step to getting your driver’s license very effective either. You could wait around, not practice at all, and still pass the driver’s test. All I had to do in my town was pull out of the parking spot and drive in a straight line before turning back around to the DMV. That is simply not enough to make sure that the person taking this test knows how to safely drive. Driving in a circle is easy, but driving with other obstacles like streetlights isn’t and clearly, we need to make the test harder. I think it would be beneficial if they were required to not only pass the test but also have an adult sign off a certain number of hours practicing to be allowed to take the test in the first place. If they fail the test, they don’t have to repeat those since it would be a hassle, but this would ensure that people aren’t just showing up to a test without any practice beforehand.
What I could do as an individual is to encourage my classmates to drive slower and to wear their seatbelts when I notice they aren’t wearing them or hear they haven’t been using them. I could also drive a little slower than normal instead of five miles over the speed limit I could go at the speed limit, even when it feels excruciatingly slow or I’m in a hurry. In conclusion, if there is enough input from everyone we could prevent severe injuries or even worse, death by car crash.