Safer Driving

Safe
Safer Driving

As a
teenager, driving became one of my favorite things. Being able to
drive was a mark of independence for me and I soon gained other
skills related to driving such as knowing directions and getting gas
before getting out to push my car the extra couple meters to the
station. Along with these skills, I learned other skills that didn’t
exactly yield to the standards of defensive driving. My vast one year
of experience had taught me that speed limit translates to speed
suggestion. It had taught me how loud my car speakers can blast, that
I could check my phone at red lights, and that passing from the right
is okay in an open road. The fault in my philosophies was evident yet
I still took the risks. It was only until I experienced my first car
crash that I learned my lesson.

I
realized that there is no such thing as 100% safe driving. This is
why we call it defensive driving instead. Studying and remembering
all the little details and rules of driving was easy for me and I
even got a perfect score on my driver’s test. Flash forward one
year later and many of these details I’ve learned were long
forgotten. After being in my first accident, I knew it was important
to refresh my knowledge from when I gained my license. By opening the
ADOT Driver’s License manual again, I reviewed many key concepts
that were pushed to the back of my mind when driving on the roads,
and I did this of my own volition. Instead of getting a ticket and
signing up for a course on Drivers ed or having to attend
Traffic Survival School, it is much less consequential to update my
memory to prevent a costly mistake. By dedicating at least one day a
week to reading the Driver’s Manual, I could help assure my safety
while driving as well as other people’s safety around me.

As a
member of the yearbook committee at my high school, we dedicate one
spread to the driving class our school offers. We interview scholars
about their accidents and what they’ve learned and we compile these
quotes in this spread. This raises awareness amongst teenagers like
me of the risks of distracted driving. Passing distracted driving
laws that regulate the use of phones and eating in cars is also a
crucial measure to take in preventing crashes and death from driving.

There
is no such thing as perfectly safe driving, but reckless driving will
increase the risks of driving drastically. I never thought I would
ever get into a car crash, yet due to my carelessness, I was wrong.
People often forget how little things like checking their phone and
trying to pass cars like they’re in the Indianapolis 500 can incur
very heavy consequences like injuries and death. In the long run,
those little things are not worth the risks at all.