Within Seconds

In this day and age, driving is essential to life, whether you are doing the driving or you are paying someone else to drive you around. New cars are being made and new roads are being made to keep up with the growing population. Being able to drive is a right of passage as a teenager. But to be able to drive, one needs to get their license, which is achieved by attending drivers ed and learning the basics of driving. Drivers ed is the platform to which teenagers learn how to safely operate a moving death trap. Without it, there would be a lack of knowledge of safe driving and laws put in place to regulate the hazardous driving, therefore reducing the amount of deaths caused by reckless driving each year. If more people recalled all that they learned in drivers ed about basic driving skills and followed laws then there would be less deaths on the road. One major contributor to car related deaths is the issue of drunk driving, alcohol impairs one's ability to make smart decisions and reduces their reaction time in dangerous situations. Some studies have related drunk people to a baby. We would never allow a baby to drive so why should someone under the influence be driving? Drowsy driving is said to be just as dangerous as drunk driving. The darkness of the sky stimulates the body's melatonin rate making people more tired than they would be if it was daytime, due to this people shouldn’t be allowed to drive after a certain time of night. If people didn’t drink and drive and were more aware of how tired they are, there would be less accidents caused by driving.

Everyone has had experience with reckless driving or even a car accident. Once, a family friend was driving me to a rock climbing gym and she was driving around 45mph on a side street in SLC where the speed limit was 25mph. She approached a stop sign and didn’t notice it, I told her that there was a stop sign, she came to a halt. And right as she did, a truck zoomed by. I saw my life flash before my eyes and within seconds I could have been dead. There could have been some major damage done to both cars. I wouldn’t have lived to see graduation, giving my parents grandchildren and everyone I know would have been affected within the span of 5 seconds. Least to say, I don’t get in her car anymore. No one is a perfect driver, but personally I can help reduce the risk of an accident by being more aware of how fast I am going and pedestrians at crosswalks. You never know when someone is going to slam on their brakes or run into the street. There are many problems with the ways that people drive, especially teenagers, we think we are invincible due to the lack of development in our frontal cortex. Nonetheless, there is no excuse for choosing to put yourself and others at risk. Within seconds, your life and the lives around you could be altered.