Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind: Put Passengers First

On
a visit to Kentucky, my family member (under the influence of drugs)
decided to take my cousins and me on a daytrip during December.
Speeding, we hit a patch of black ice and lost control. The back
tires skid so much so that we started spinning in circles, eventually
colliding with a guardrail which ping-ponged us across both lanes of
traffic, ultimately colliding with a massive oak tree. Had that
guardrail been non-existent, as a result of her intoxication, paired
with the speeding and inability to gage the weather conditions, my
life would have ended at the age of seven as we would have flown over
the side of a cliff overlooking the Red River.

As
a result of this situation, I always put my passengers’ interests
before my own; by driving for them, not myself, I know that I will
always protect their lives. Whether that be slowing down at an
intersection, limiting music intensity and thus distraction, or
focusing on vehicle control, I am constantly looking ahead to ensure
my passengers are safe. I believe abiding by the traffic laws despite
your friends is one of the most important aspects of driving.

According
to the National Safety Council, an estimated 38,800 US residents lost
their lives due to car accidents in 2019. In most situations, one or
both parties involved were not abiding by drivers ed’s
foundational rules by: distracted driving, speeding, driving under
the influence, bad weather conditions and breaking traffic codes. In
my opinion, avoiding the aforementioned while being well-rested and
remaining alert/thinking ahead will drastically reduce this number.

Yet,
these rules are broken. So, I believe that government infrastructure
is necessary by providing better lighting on country roads to prevent
animal/head-on collisions, building guardrails on the sides of
mountains to decrease the amount of deaths due to speeding around
windy turns, enforcing teenage curfews to limit the amount of new
drivers on the road when vision is limited, making warning signs to
limit wrong-way drivers, and creating more turn lanes to protect
drivers entering their destination will create a safer road for
everyone.

Driver
education is crucial in creating experienced, knowledgeable drivers.
By providing this, people are given the toolkit necessary to properly
operate their car and abide by traffic laws to protect themselves and
others. These courses and their lessons are important in enabling
drivers to make responsible decisions while driving by decreasing the
likelihood of careless mistakes. Yet, it is impossible to eliminate
drunk drivers or those without drivers ed from the road.
Consequently, I argue that we need to invest in infrastructure to
counteract some people’s careless decisions. For me, guard rails
saved my life.

Thus,
remember that you only get one chance to make the right choice; for
driver’s, that choice is your life – for our government, that
choice is your people.