Safe Transport or a Death Machine

Safe Transport or a Death Machine

I board the machine, grab the safety harness, start the engine, and hear it purr like a predator trying to be as possibly silent. Thousands of memories flash before my eyes. Headlines and news broadcasts remind me of an event in my childhood. The tragic accident I saw only through the news but saw embodied in every burn and scar of my cousin’s stay at a children’s hospital. She was only two ready to turn three in several weeks. It was a couple of months before her very first day of school in which she, her mother, and brother went on their way to buy school supplies. One wrong move, one mistake, one person not paying enough attention cost the lives of a mother and baby boy while leaving one girl badly injured with incessant memories of tragedies.

I was not there, but I saw the aftermath. Safe driving is essential to a world with less tragic accidents and with fewer headlines of people passing without having truly lived first. Being a safer driver is doing one’s part in reducing the amounts of accidents on the streets involving driving. Sometimes something as simple as being mindful of when to put turn signals and not texting people when they are driving can prevent a catastrophe. Personally, driving is a dangerous practice that cannot be taken lightly. I take every turn seriously and every speed limit as the supreme law of the land. Because I have seen the ramnifications of careless driving, the practice will never be as trivial to me as it is to many. There are many ways to be a better driver.

One way to reduce the possibilty of accidents is being wary of signs and signals. In highly traveled areas with pedestrian traffic, signs are everywhere. Being aware of each of them and of one’s spatial position in a certain location can save a life. Streetlights follow the same logic. Coming from a place in which people say that speed limits are just “suggestions” and that yellow means, “Speed up,” telling people to be aware is often met with stares and laughs. Even if no one listens, simply telling one person can make a difference. However, these are practices that must be employed by one’s self as well. It does not matter if one is in the crowded city of New York or in the suburbs, signs and signals are present for public safety and must be obeyed.

As much as being a safe driver means to be mindful of what one does, it also means to be alert of other drivers. Many times, one is doing everything according to law and safety, and, yet, another driver can completely change the outcome of the day. Aside from following signs, benign wary of whether or not others follow them can alert an individual to avoid certain drivers. Knowing from first hand experience just how much damage another driver can do to someone that is following every single law and rule, the importance of being aware of every other car on the street is grand and influences my own driving. It is not only about following rules but also of noticing when others do not.

If everyone drove safely, many would still be celebrating birthdays with their loved ones. Unfortunately, that is not that case. Safe driving is something that must be taken seriously, for it has the power to save lives and sometimes even whole families. The truth is simple, if not careful, everyone is driving a death machine.