Life is a Ride

Driver’s education plays and important roll in reducing deaths on the highways. Many people complete the basic requirements needed to get their license, but they follow the examples of individuals around them. Also, they take short cuts when it comes to obeying traffic laws. The more individuals educate themselves, the more they remember what they learn while driving. These are some of the items that affect drivers’ abilities as a result of lack of education.

After completing the driver’s education class online, I learned a lot of things about what could happen while driving the Texas roadways. I noticed how friends did exactly what I saw on the driver’s education video. While driving in the neighborhood, I would see that my friends did not completely stop at stop signs and take a chance by running the stop sign. They did not even slow down because they were in a rush to get nowhere. It would have scared me because if I was in the car, we could have gotten hit by another car. In the news, I often hear that Texas has one of the highest death rates as a result of drinking and driving. I often remember seeing how children and adults get hurt and even die because of drunk driving. The driver’s education course spends a lot of time focusing on the effects of alcohol on various individuals. According to an article from “Hard Facts about DUI (driving under the influence), $51 billion is lost as a result of alcohol related accidents. It also mentions that forty percent of alcohol related crashes are fatal. Drunk drivers not only hurt the victims, but also hurt their family. If someone dies as a result of a drunk driver, the drunk driver can go to jail. The drunk driver’s family also hurts because they won’t be able to see their love one for a long time. Even though these videos are a bit gory, it places an image in my head that comes up when I drive on the road. If I see anyone swerving on the road, I know that I should slow down and stay far away from that car.

While driving drunk is illegal, it is important to obey the laws of the road. I have not witnessed someone crossing the railroad tracks with the arms down, but I have seen videos of how a 35 mile per hour train ripped a vehicle apart. Some individuals play Russian Roulette when they run the tracks and the results are horrible. Based on an article titled “Collisions and Fatalities” , Texas ranks number one in the United States with the most train collisions, which was 241. California ranks second with 172. In 2022, there were 2,194 highway-rail grade crossing collisions in the United States. Running red lights have also caused many accidents as well. A few years ago, my mother was in a car accident. She was driving by herself along the busy toll road and suddenly two police cars (one on the far outer lane on the driver’s side and the other on the far outer lane on the passenger side of my mom’s car) came flying by to attend to an emergency. There was a four-door car driving beside her at around sixty mile per hour and the driver of the car did not know how to respond to the police cars. The driver’s reaction was to swerve without looking to either side of his car. Well, he swerved and hit my mom’s vehicle causing her to swerve and hit the side of a midsize refurbished Frito Lay delivery truck. The delivery truck moved side to side and hit my mom’s vehicle causing her to spin several times, but she remembered how to handle the spinning from her defensive driving class. The airbags went off, but my mom’s vehicle was crushed on all sides. Quick thinking, safety devices, and a whole lot of prayer protected her that day and she only received a seatbelt burn. There are two lessons here. If the driver of the car had proper training and been reminded, he would have known not to swerve and just slow down. My mother used her knowledge from defensive driving at work and training on her own to help her while the accident was occurring.

We all know that vehicles are the most dangerous equipment in our lives today, but we rely on them to transport us safely. Life is a ride and the best way to safely and defensively enjoy the ride is to learn. There are many ways to learn how to drive defensively. There are classes in person, classes on line, guest speakers from the department of motor vehicles visiting your schools, comedy classes, and discussion with your parents and friend. Which ever way an individual learns, it is important to have repeated training so that the knowledge is in the back of your mind and comes to you as if it were second nature. The training you gain from these courses will prevent deaths on our roads.