Driver Safety

Allyson Rouhoff

Safe Driver Scholarship

I have not had to personally deal with the loss of a loved one due to vehicle accidents, but I know members of my community who have. I feel drivers’ education does a great job in warning young adults and placing restrictions to keep them safe. In drivers training we were taught about specifically hydroplaning and driving through fog or snow, and the danger of black ice. Before drivers training I did not know we needed to adjust our driving in these situations. I believe drivers education should also be a class in school that is taught over the course of a year or semester, rather than just a week or two. Teaching it over a longer period of time will give students a better chance at retaining the information and effectively applying it in their driving over the years. My sister just took her 2-week driving training course and now she is struggling to pass her test because she can not remember the information she was taught. Refresher courses and retaking your drivers test at certain age milestones could also be helpful. There may be no way to totally eliminate death while driving but some changes could definitely change the statistics.

Death while driving can easily be one of my biggest fears, there are so many unpredictable things happening at once and your life could be over in seconds. I believe one of the easiest ways to reduce deaths while driving is placing heavier restrictions on people driving during hazardous conditions or better car systems to warn drivers of upcoming hazardous spots and accidents. We have all seen the videos of cars racing down the road and then suddenly there is a pile up of cars ahead and they are unable to stop or slow down because of the road conditions and they end up adding to the upcoming pileup. If we had a way to immediately warn drivers of these hazards or even a system that automatically breaks the car even on ice, so many accidents could be prevented. Another possibility is an automatic phone shut down when it feels the motion of the vehicle, distracted driving is a huge issue in younger generations and I feel it could even get worse with the technology age.

I have luckily never been in a car accident but I have experienced my friends not making smart decisions while driving. The first instance I can think of is when a couple friends and I were home and accidently took a wrong turn, we ended up on a gravel road. It was the last week in January and just a few days before we lost a classmate of ours due to a car accident on the way to school in a snow storm. The friend that was driving us lived on a gravel road and assured us that they could get us back to the main road without missing curfew. This friend began driving recklessly, 50 MPH on a gravel, snow covered, icy road. I was very concerned for my safety and still think about what could have happened to us that night, curfew was not worth our lives. Another situation with a reckless driver was my senior homecoming. Every year after our football game all the seniors go out to eat together and enjoy the night. We were on our way to a city over and a friend of mine was driving, this was the first time I had rode with her. She ended up speeding the entire way, the worst part was when we got on the freeway. She began driving over 100 MPH trying to catch up to the other classmates, I was sitting in the back trying to figure out if I was the only one of my friends who noticed that we were driving a dangerous speed. We fortunately made it home safety that night and to this day I remind both friends of the danger we were put in those nights.

I always do what I can to drive as safe as possible, but to become even better I could probably set up a voice activated radio so I will have attention on the road at all times. I almost never ride alone so I will have my passenger change music for me or text people back. I understand the dangers of reckless driving and I hope I can further influence my friends to change that behavior and value their life while driving.