National Driving and Traffic School Scholarship Essay

Improving our road safety, driver education is very important and can reduce deaths related to driving. Drivers Education teaches valuable road skills and knowledge of the law which will help the driver and educate the driver about road safety. You will be provided with knowledge and set skills about driving safely and how to drive the correct way. What you take from driver’s education will help you in life while on the road.

A lot of deaths related to driving are occurring daily and we need to take necessary steps to prevent this from continuing. You should be driving for yourself and the other person in the other car to keep the road safe. Watch out for pedestrians, children, bikers and anyone crossing the street. Do not driver aggressively as people react to this and it can become dangerous and lead to road rage. Make sure you watch your speed to prevent wrecks ahead of you. When changing lanes use your mirrors instead of turning around to see if you can get over. Also be a courteous driver, remember all the locations will be there once you arrive.

There is no reason to speed, as the place you are trying to reach will still be there no matter what miles per hour you are going. As a result of speeding we received a disturbing call to my mother’s phone with screams and hard cries to let us know that my young male cousin had gotten into a car accident in the middle of the night. He didn’t make it. It was very late at night and no one came out of their homes to help him as his car was in flames. The car was destroyed and they could not identify the body. The hurt and pain of knowing he had been speeding to make it home when this could have been prevented if he had slowed down. His car jumped a speed bump and ran into a tree outside of an apartment complex. Another driver drove by hours later and reported it to the police. His father who is the head of a fire station had to try to identify his body which made it even harder. He had a promised record deal and a baby on the way. Very popular guy that had so much going for him.

People are happy to start their day, get in the car to drive and may not know distractions are horrible for the driver and the other people driving around you. Texting and using social media for instance is one distraction that will take your focus from paying attention to driving correctly and your surroundings which causes major accidents. Live streaming, typing post, reading post, and scrolling through news feed can make you miss a red light, run a stop light and even may cause speeding. Drunk driving and eating can cause you to fall asleep at the wheel and can cause a crash that will harm you and others. Most incidents while driving are actually by not paying attention. Turning to talk to other passengers can cause you to miss when you need to press the break pad and you can run into the back of someone else car. When applying makeup while driving it is very hard to keep focused on driving and making the right turns or changing lanes. When the driver is texting it distracts their eyes and mind from the visual scene. Changing the radio station and other electronics to listen to music in the car takes your eyes off the road for a split second and in that second an accident can occur. When driving in the car there are many distractions and you have to be mature enough to know what is more important. You have to drive for yourself and the people that are in your surroundings so you will prevent any accidents. If everyone paid attention to the road and their driving a few accidents will happen. The incident rates will drop to a low amount.

Being distracted by texting, scrolling through social media, turning around to discuss with other passengers, reading, drinking and applying makeup are very dangerous and should be stopped. There are several ways to avoid these distractions and steps you can take to be a better and safer driver as well as help others become safer on the road. One step is by putting your phone on Samsung’s “in traffic reply” or Apple’s “do not disturb” so people that are texting you will know you will respond later. You can text the necessary text before you even leave and then not touch the phone until you arrive to your destination. Also leave your phone in your purse with the sound off so you cannot hear the alerts until you park. Prepare yourself for driving before you start the engine. Another step is to clean any clutter, empty bottles that may roll under the seats out of the car. Stay focused when you have other passengers in the car. Let them know to keep the tone down and limit the conversation. If there are children in the car ask the adult passenger to watch the children while you drive. You can make a playlist or have your radio pre-set to the stations you usually listen to. If you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed do not drive if it will distract you. Overall driver’s education is important as it reduces the number of deaths and also you want to protect you and others.