Ditch Dangerous Driving

Ditch Dangerous Driving

The red and blue lights zoom by as the ear-piercing siren muffles into the distance. All over the news they portray the unrecognizable car as it bursts into flames beside the paramedics. Across the bottom of the screen, you read the three heart-wrenching words: Fatal Car Accident. You puzzle how this could have even happened, what was the driver doing? Texting? Eating? Had they fallen asleep at the wheel? These three examples are crucial factors to the amount of car accidents, especially among the youth. In drivers education, teenagers are taught how important it is to pay full attention to the road as well their surroundings while they are behind the wheel. Just a few seconds of distraction can cost one their life, which is something that not many realize. For me, I am always sure to keep my full attention on the road, especially when in a busier area or I am accompanied and therefore am responsible for someone else’s life, not only my own. I feel as if it is urgent that people of all ages are aware of all distractions they may not even realize they take part in while driving. These include: texting, navigating, using the radio, eating, drinking, smoking, talking, singing, and many others. Although drunk driving causes many fatal car accidents every day, did you know that falling asleep behind the wheel has caused more of these accidents? For this reason, drivers must make sure they are in the right conditions to drive. Two of these conditions include feeling well-rested and being sober, which is taught in drivers education. After a long day of work or school, it can be easy for one to doze off. For this reason, they must wait until they have the required amount of energy to drive in order to protect themselves as well as others. I have had this experience more than once, where I have waited in a parking lot until I was feeling refreshed enough to get behind the wheel. In many cases after teenagers get their license, they tend to drive around late at night with friends. This is okay as long as all safety precautions are followed as well as the laws that prohibit some freedoms of new licensed drivers. However, driving late at night can cause drowsiness and therefore lead to accidents. During my junior year, a peer of mine dozed at the wheel and ended up in the front yard of someone’s home and crashed into a large tree. If he had not hit the tree, he would have gone straight through the owner’s home. This was a scary experience to witness for new drivers especially, myself being one of them, because it was someone that I knew and I was petrified I would have a similar experience. My classmate ended up being perfectly fine, he was just shooken up from what he had done, which happens to many who have had accidents. The only thing that can really be done to prevent these accidents is educate the driving population of their dangerous driving habits, as well as how they can prevent accidents among themselves and others.