Unforeseen Dangers: Driving Safely

As a freshman in high school taking drivers ed I thought I knew it all: don’t speed, watch the road, mind the weather, and don’t get distracted. To my surprise, I learned so much more than that. I learned that heavy snowfall is not the only thing that can make the roads dangerous. Wet leaves and heavy rain make the road just as unsafe as ice during a snowstorm. I also learned the basics of taking care of a vehicle. The teacher demonstrated how to change a tire, how to check the oil, and how to put air in the tires. Without my drivers education course, I would have been stuck at college with a flat tire because I didn’t know how to put air in it, and I might have wrecked had I not known how dangerous it can be to drive on wet roads.

Reducing the number of deaths per year caused by driving can be solved by giving people the statistics, encouraging safer driving habits, and enforcing all the laws related to safe driving. Most people are not aware just how many people die every year due to car accidents; making that more known might shock many people and give them something to think about. Encouraging safe driving habits really relies in the media. People that practice safe driving habits are often portrayed in movies as the nerdy “do-gooders”, and the people that drive recklessly are often portrayed at the cool “rebels”. It’s time to change that stereotype. Enforcing the laws that pertain to safe driving is critical as well. If someone gets pulled over for speeding multiple times and never receives any punishment other than a warning, no one will ever listen to the law.

In December of 2011, my sister and I were in a terrible car accident. She was a senior in high school at the time, and I was in fifth grade. It was senior skip day, but she was at the school doing volunteer work. I had flute lessons that day and had forgotten my flute, so my mom asked her to run me home and bring me back to the school. She was angry that she was losing volunteer hours, so she started to speed on the way home. Going around a sharp curve we hit a patch of ice, swerved to the other side of the road, came back to our side of the road, but continued to slide with such force we slid up the side of the hill, causing the car to roll. The car rolled completely around and again up onto its side and slid on its side for 50 feet. When the car finally came to a stop, I was hanging in the air with nothing but my seatbelt keeping me from falling to the pavement which was covered in broken glass. I carefully undid my seatbelt, dropped to the ground, and crawled out the back window of the car, which had completely fallen out. I was so disoriented and scared I had forgotten where I was (and I had traveled this route almost every day since I was 5). It took me over a year to get over my fear of being in a car, and to this day I am still scared to drive or ride in a car during snowstorms.

To be a safer driver, I have started to put my phone face down on the passenger seat of the car, or in the cupholder if I have a passenger. I always wear my seatbelt, as it had saved my life 7 years ago, and I always tell my passengers to buckle up. If there is someone young in the car with me, I always make sure they are secured safely in the back seat. While driving, I will happily let people annoyed by my driving the speed limit pass me on the high way. The most important thing is to just be aware of your surroundings and be aware that everything could change in a matter of seconds, all it takes is one look at your phone, or one glance away from the road.