Driving Safety Begins With Us

Driving Safety Begins With Us

It was after a family gathering that I experienced my first car crash. It all happened so fast. A drunk driver passed a red light a slammed into my brother’s car. Thankfully, all of my family survived along with some bruises. The experience scarred me for life. I thought to myself, I would never drive. The truth is, driving is a necessity in my large city. Driving safely is not rocket science, and I would eventually learn that as I continue to drive today. If I was able to get over a fear of driving, then I believe anyone can learn and apply driving safety. To lower driving deaths would start with passing the requirements to get a license, reviewing traffic laws often, and prevent against driving distractions.

One way to be lower driving deaths is to put in the effort to learn driving safety. Driving seems simple on the outside, but the rules take time to remember and apply. After all, there is a reason why there are a written test and a driving test to get a license. There are many types of traffic laws, driving conditions, and general requirements to remember before getting behind the wheel. This ensures that everyone remembers the drivers ed longer and reduces the chance of crashes. Unfortunately, this does not permanently cement the traffic laws in the mind.

Someone like me who is terrified of driving takes safe driving very seriously. The reason being is that despite how safe of a driver I try to be, others can be the opposite. The best step to be a safe driver is to always review the traffic laws in the country we occupy. Especially when driving to another country, the laws can change depending on the country. A few examples to review would be turn signals, lane changing, or parking laws. Although, no matter how much one can prepare for driving there are other factors that might affect our driving.

To reduce the number of deaths related to driving, we much consider the outside factors that often come into play in car crashes. One of the most common causes is drunk driving. Currently, there is a lot of advertisements advising against driving under the influence. That is admirable, but there needs to more resources. Current drivers should have interventions to spread awareness and provide help to those at risk. Incidentally, the same could be applied to several other factors, such as distracted driving and road rage. Providing resources for therapy or education of these factors can increase awareness and would decrease the number of deaths by driving.

We should all strive to better drivers because it is something, we could all do. Passing the driving test, retaining all we learned, and combating against distractions is the best way to lower driving deaths. The goal of ending driving deaths everywhere is not easy to achieve; despite this obstacle, we can always start with improving our driving.