Name: Katelyn Keyton
From: Centreville , MD
Votes: 0
Drive
Safe, Have a Tomorrow
Every
single day, 3287 deaths occur each day due to an automobile accident.
One of those people could be a relative, a close friend, or even
yourself. While reading this sentence, just remember, this is the
youngest you are ever going to be. Have you accomplished everything
you intended for in life yet? Is there still many dreams you wish to
accomplish? All of those ideas a person wishes and hopes to
accomplish in the future, however, could easily be taken away in a
matter of a second due to reckless driving.
Driving
is a wonderful experience, the day I received my driver’s license was
the day I felt a new sense of independence that I will take advantage
of and absorb for the rest of my life. However, driving is also very
dangerous if someone does not drive responsibly. One of the first
days I drove alone after receiving license I remembered a graphic
video that I watched in my drivers ed class that warned me
about the dangers of texting or participating in other distractions
while driving. I had remembered a time watching my own mother text
and drive and almost T-boning a tractor-trailer that would have ended
our lives. That fear influenced me to put my phone out of sight so I
did not feel pressure to go on it and to have my full attention to
the road and the rules of driving. Drivers ed taught me all
that I needed to be a safe driver which is why the class is so very
important and valuable to a potential driver. The Drivers ed
course not alone potentially save the new driver’s life but also
those others around them that could easily be hurt by one not paying
attention.
One
issue I struggle with is, however, the temptation of looking down at
my cell phone. As a senior in high school, I grew up in the
generation of communication through technology. However, despite my
phone addiction I have to learn to forget about my phone when I sit
in a driver’s seat because it only takes a few seconds of looking
down at a text to swerve off the road or be blind to what’s in front
of me. I believe cell phone use has become the biggest cause of
automobile crashes and that one way to fix that would be more
technology within cars that can change songs, send texts, call
people, and ext. with voice control instead of the use of hands. For
now, however, the gruesome video of accidents I was forced to watch
in drivers ed class put upon a fear within me that made me a
more cautious driver. Including more uncensored and real-life videos
that do not sugarcoat the dangers of being a distracted driver will
cause people to drive more safely and prevent accidents by reducing
the amount of unresponsible driving.
