Be Aware, Be Alive

The
dangers of driving are not something that should be taken lightly.
In 2012, there were approximately 35,000 deaths from highway vehicle
accidents; this is approximately 3,500 more deaths of US soldier from
the Korean War (DMV EDU). This outrageous number of fatalities
occurs from distracted drivers, uneducated drivers, and careless
drivers. As young drivers, we need to take action to try and
minimize the number of road fatalities that occur each year.

Driver
education is a critical factor in reducing the number of deaths from
driving, but unfortunately young people seem to take driving for
granted. They get in their up-to-date, high-tech vehicles and start
towards their destination fearlessly. People assume their cars are
safe, but to what extent? Drivers ed, which everyone is
required to take before they can ‘hit the road’, is not nearly
informative enough. Drivers ed teaches the rules of the road
as well as basic car maintenance tips, but it doesn’t give
emergency scenarios and how to handle them. After drivers ed,
people are well equipped to handle four-way stop signs and right turn
yield signs, but don’t know how to properly handle their vehicle
when another car is merging into their lane on the highway. In order
for people to be better equipped for the road, drivers ed needs
to be taken much more seriously, and it needs to go much more into
real-life problems.

The
first step towards reducing driving deaths is, as stated above,
enhancing drivers ed classes. In doing this, drivers will know
how to handle most basic emergency situations as they come their way.
The second step towards reducing fatalities whilst driving is to
limit distractions. In today’s world, there is hands-free calling,
smart watches, phones, and GPS voices that are all available and
ready to distract a driver. Waze, the well-known navigation app,
makes a dinging noise whenever there is a stopped vehicle, cop, or
road obstruction; the app even announce these potential road hazards.
These voice alerts can cause the driver to look at their car screen
or phone, which means taking their eyes off the road. Smart watches
are becoming more popular, and most vibrate whenever a notification
comes across someone’s phone, thus causing the driver to check to
see who/what it was, another reason to distract a driver. The last
and final step people can take is to simply be aware. People are
mostly focused on the road in front of them and are unaware of what
is occurring around their vehicle; if people do not watch their
surroundings as closely as they do the road ahead, they may be
blindsided by another car or surprised by an animal crossing the
road.

I
have never been in a fatal car accident, but my family’s close
friends were. After basketball practice, the dad and the two sons
were on their usual drive back from the gym, not more than 5 minutes
away. An unprepared and unaware driver coming in the opposite
direction was caught off-guard by a deer sprinting across the road.
Because he was not educated on what to properly do in this situation,
he swerved into the other side of the road and hit the car head on
that our friends were in. The dad suffered a broken hip and multiple
rib fractures causing one of his lungs to collapse, the one son
suffered a traumatic brain injury resulting in brain swelling and
broke several ribs and his ankle, and yet worse, the other son passed
away (my little brothers best friend). After two hip reconstructions
and lots of physical therapy, the dad is now able to walk and live
life as normal as possible considering the circumstances of his life
being forever changed. The one son had to be in a medically induced
coma for a week so his brain swelling would go down, and he had to be
hospitalized so his ribs and ankle could heal. He has done physical
therapy and is now able to walk with ankle braces. He is unable to
take normal classes and has physical and mental disabilities. If the
one driver would have known to keep his car straight and just hit the
deer, the entire lives of this family wouldn’t have been forever
altered.

I,
along with every other driver on the road, can start off by putting
our phones in our console or glove box while we are driving. There
will be no temptation to check it at red lights or while moving.
Secondly, I could sign up to take a defensive driving class so I will
know how to be safer on the road and how to better handle tricky road
situations. The most important thing for everyone to remember is to
not get distracted while driving. Bright colored advertisement signs
are meant to distract us, but if we avoid looking and we focus on the
road and the cars around us, car accident fatalities will become less
and the roads we drive on will become safer.