Driving with risks

The importance of driver education will not only reduce the amount of deaths caused by driving but most importantly inform everyone about the many risks they can come in contact with while driving or being a passenger, no matter how big or small the risks can be. There are many different ways someone can be educated on the importance of driving from big presentations and examples to small reminders.

For example, when studying for your driver’s license there should be more questions about what things can allow for car crashes and accidents. We are taught to learn how to prevent accidents like always wearing a seatbelt, check your blindspots, obey the speed limit but why aren’t we taught about the multiple outcomes that can come out of avoiding those things? Why aren’t we taught that if we don’t wear our seatbelts not only could we injure and/or potentially die in a crash but you could suffer from internal organ damage, neck and spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, getting ejected from the car and so much more. Why are we not taught that not checking your blind spots not only increases your chances of causing a collision with another car but it also increases the chances of creating a bigger accident with not just that car you didn’t see but the other cars around that see the collision and try avoiding it only to create more crashes. We are almost always only taught the bad outcomes and never the worst case scenarios we can face when it comes to driving. We need to be educated more on the worst case scenarios when it comes to driving, this can be done in many ways like having a mandatory class about those dangers when completing your driver’s license test. This can even be mandated when you are going to take your permit test, because if you don’t even know those potential dangers you can cause as well as come into contact with then you shouldn’t even be allowed to take that next step in completing your driver’s license.

I have experienced three car accidents in my life, two of them I was driving. I have also experienced a loss from a car crash as well as seen the aftermath of a person in an accident. Starting with my first car crash which was caused by someone else not paying attention to the road. I ended up t-boning a car who came out in front of me due to them running their light. This very car crash changed my whole perspective on driving completely. And not only for me but for my best friend who was in the car with me during it. After that car crash, I’ve always been an observant person in the car whether I’m driving or not. Now for my second crash, this was caused by my vehicle hydroplaning in a puddle on the highway, crashing into another vehicle. Now because I wasn’t exactly taught how to control the car when it hydroplanes, I didn’t know what to do exactly in that moment causing me to crash into another vehicle. This was something that could’ve been avoidable if I knew how to control the car and would’ve avoided me from dealing with that crash because now I have to face it in court. And having those things on my record for something I didn’t do necessarily really brings me down and affects me a lot. It does make me doubt myself when it comes to driving, and even though I passed my driver’s test on the first try with only one mistake, it makes me think I am not fit to drive.

And lastly my recent car accident that also happened due to hydroplaning but I was the passenger and in this case the driver knew how to control her car so we didn’t hit anyone but the wall. Thankfully she has had more than enough experience with driving so she knew what to do, but unlike me who has had less than 5 years of experience, I just simply didn’t know what to do. This is something I believe a lot of people fail to realize, we have to teach the newer drivers how to react in situations like mine and what to do in order to remain safe. There has to be required courses that go over these types of situations, what to do in them, what they can cause in the long term, who they can affect and so on. This is something we should be implementing when it comes to taking your driver’s license test. And to wrap this all up, one of the most impactful car crashes I have experienced, a car crash that ended the life of the purest souls I’ve known. My big sister on the cheer team freshman year, I am a freshman in college now and she’s not here.

I always remind my family and/or friends when I am in the car with them about simple things they should be doing, like wearing their seatbelt, using their blinkers, not texting while driving, etc. There are so many careless drivers now that it’s even a risk to drive places. Again, getting educated on not only the importance of driving safely but the major risks driving can cause not only to you but other drivers around you is something that should be required.