Lets do better and keep everybody safe

Driver’s education is important for every person. Driver’s education helps you by preparing you to become a lifelong safe driver by providing you with the foundational skills and experience you need to approach the road and driving with confidence. The importance of driver education when it comes to reducing the number of driving related deaths is that when you go through the class they not only share the rules of driving they also tell you how to be a conscious driver. Those who do not enroll in driving school are 75% more likely to get caught violating rules and getting tickets, 16% most likely to get in accidents and 24% more likely for the accidents to be fatal. These classes can help reduce these numbers by teaching you traffic laws, driving responsibility and safe driving techniques.

We can reduce the number of driving deaths by taking an extra moment to make sure that all passengers in your vehicle are buckled. Sometimes it is hard to confront our peers or family or whoever we happen to be driving with but the best advice I heard was when I was going through my drivers education class they told us that even though it can be difficult the best way to stay safe is by refusing to move your vehicle till every single person in the car is buckled. An additional way you can ensure that everybody stays safe is by making sure that you are completely present when driving by not getting behind the wheel when you are even the slightest bit impaired. Many people are often overly confident when they are under the influence and think they can drive but the best way to stay out of an accident and stay safe is to give up your keys. If you know that you will be drinking or doing drugs, always make sure that you have a person who is either willing to pick you up or willing to stay sober so that nobody gets hurt. Many people would rather miss out on a little fun or get woken up from a phone call from you asking for a ride than receiving a call that you are no longer here.

I think that every person has done things that are not responsible such as getting on our phones and responding to that text because “it’ll be really quick” or we need to change the song because “it isn’t what I want to listen to at that moment”. I’ve personally been lucky that I haven’t gotten into a car accident and I am very grateful for that but I do remember when my aunt had gotten into an accident, she had just dropped of my cousins off at my grandparents house when she was driving away to head to work she hadn’t taken enough time to look at her surroundings and slammed into another car. My aunt had realized that one of the people in the vehicle was left deceased, she has to live with that for the rest of her life. She went through years of therapy before she was able to function again but she will never be the same. This story that I heard many years back still lives with me till this day and makes me want to be a better and safer driver. We should all hold each other accountable so as to not do things that we will regret later nor do things that can cause harm to us or the other people around us.

In this day in age people tend to be so wrapped up in their personal lives that they forget that other people have families and lives that they are trying to get to when in the vehicle we aren’t the only one on the road, we all need to slow down and be present. As a society everyone including myself needs to put down the phone, turn down the music and focus on getting from point A to point B. We can all start by making sure that we are in the right mindset before getting in the car and driving, take an extra minute to text the people who might be trying to get ahold of you before hand,put on do not disturb, or take a moment to turn on the music you know you are wanting to listen to. If you are upset, take a moment to take a few breaths and try to calm down. All in all if we take the time to take a driver’s education class we can save more lives from driving negligence.