Change for safety

“The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it”- Dudley Moore. As it may seem satirical, this statement is very much substantial, most of us feel that we are abide by law to follow road rules, so we tend to follow them only when cops are around and I don’t really blame anyone for this, as humans we are all worried about the tickets, with increasing prices crashing markets, we are all working multiple jobs and still don’t earn enough, in such uncertain situations, paying such huge tickets would be a distress to everyone. But on the other hand we all forget that every person who drives on the road is liable to follow healthy road rules. We find it difficult to understand a very simple logic, that by following rules, we don’t have to worry about cops and tickets. I wonder about it, aren’t these rules set by us humans to protect ourselves? But then we forget about it very often.

Firstly, for us to remember safety all the time, driver education is very important. Can you believe me, if i say that there is more possibility for a soldier to come home alive from a war than a driver who just went out to run some errands. Even though it may sound ironic, it’s very much true, if we look at the statistics, the number of soldiers martyred in different wars combined is comparatively very less than people dying in road accidents. Why are we facing this kind of situation? Lack of proper driver education is one of the main reasons I believe. For example, a person who is aware of the reasons for hydroplaning and skilled enough to handle it could avoid accidents more efficiently than a person who is not aware of it. Driver’s education teaches about many uncertain situations like snow, rain, flat tires, Health emergencies in the driving seat and how to handle them all like a pro as every situation must be handled differently.

Secondly, despite people having proper driving education and having valid drivers licenses, they are still being in accidents, what would be the cause of this situation? This is definitely the state of mind a person is in. No matter how skilled a driver is, if the person is stressed, angry or depressed, this would definitely affect his driving, this is not only dangerous for him but also for people around him. I myself have a personal experience, which I would like to share. A couple of months back I had a hospital appointment. Due to unforeseen reasons my day got busy and I had to rush to my appointment. Unfortunately it was raining heavily that day, due to stress, rain and poor visibility I have hit another car. It not only caused me psychological trauma, I had to deal with the financial crisis as well, I had to spend my tuition savings on hospital bills and car repair. It’s not been the same ever since, I was too traumatized to drive, that I started taking the bus after the incident. Even though it was a sad incident, it taught me a lesson for life. Noone is supposed to heave home in a hurry or in stress, this would only bring unnecessary problems.

I’m no scholar to tell people how to drive, but according to my personal experiences and real time situations I have seen and heard of, I could tell that driving is an art form just like people give up distractions and converge their concentration at one place while painting or writing a book, one should merge their heart and mind while driving, Because driving needs your complete attention, one must be ready at all the times to prevent any accident that could occur in fractions of seconds. For this kind of highly attentive driving one should leave home in no hurry, things are never the same when a person is in a hurry.

I want to conclude this topic by saying that external forces like cops or law or tickets should never control the driver in you, change caused due to external force will be gone once the force is removed, change should always start from within, only this kind of internal change will last longer, one should know the value of life, not just yours but everyone around you, one should know the value of time, that law enforcement officers spend on controlling road rules, let’s make their job easy. One should feel the pain a family goes through when they lose their loved ones to road accidents. Being a skilled, responsible and empathetic driver will definitely bring down the number of accidents that happen everyday.