Prevent Reckless Driving

Driving is the one of the most exciting things you can learn as a growing teenager. Being able to get your license and driving yourself anywhere and everywhere without being an “inconvenience” to the adults in your life that have to take you to and from places is an exciting and free feeling. But driving is also the number one most dangerous activity we partake in our daily lives, all teens should have access to a safe and well taught environment for learning how to drive. When I was beginning to drive my mom would remind me everyday that a car is the biggest weapon a person can own and that it is always my responsibility when I am behind the wheel. It’s incredibly sad that in 2019 almost 39,000 people have died in a car accident. As a community we must educate upcoming drivers.

Driver’s education should be available at all high schools across the country and or given free classes for those who can’t afford driver’s education that is not provided at their school. Being able to provide upcoming drivers these driving classes is important because anyone can teach anyone how to drive. Anyone can teach them the basics: stop, go, slow down, and park. But when in drivers education you are taught all the rules of the road, what each sign means, what the different colors of the signs mean, and give you solutions to any situation you might come across. Driver’s education also teaches you the importance of driving responsibly. The number of deaths coming from car accidents mainly range between teenagers to young adults because of reckless driving.

Teenagers and young adults die from these car accidents because, one of many reasons: drinking and driving, texting and driving, not wearing their seatbelts, racing each other on highways, falling asleep while driving and many other careless acts that end up killing/ hurting themselves or others. The steps that we should be taking to reduce the number of deaths relating to driving is to spread awareness. It might not sound like much but sharing stories to others does put an effect on people and it will make them think twice about what actions they will take when they are behind the wheel.

I haven’t personally been involved in a car accident, which I am very grateful for and hope to never be in one but many of my friends and family have been in minor and major car accidents. Coming home from a dinner a car rear ended my mom and dad with my 3 year old brother inside because he was on his phone not paying attention as they got to a stop light. My friend’s uncle was coming home from work at 3:00 in the morning when a 23 year old man sped through a stop sign hit my friend’s uncle and killed him. Another time my friend was coming home from his baseball game and a teenager a year older than us ran a stop light and crashed into him, come to find out this teenage boy was drinking earlier that evening. I wouldn’t call any of these car “accidents” because an accident is something that is unpreventable or it’s unintentional. All these carless, irresponsible, and reckless acts could have been prevented if these people just acted responsibly. If he didn’t go on their phone while driving he wouldn’t have damaged my moms car, if the 23 year old man didn’t speed he wouldn’t have killed someone’s uncle, and if the 19 year old boy didn’t carelessly drink alcohol before going home he wouldn’t have injured my friend.

When I drive I like to put my iphone on “do not disturb” so I don’t hear or see any notifications come up and I’m not tempted to check my phone while I’m on the road. When I am in the passenger seat of my friends car and I see them on their phone I tell them to “pass it over. I’ll text you mom for you” or if I am in a car and they are speeding then I will speak up and tell them to slow down because I don’t feel safe. If I see someone drinking I take their keys and hide them so they are not allowed to drive home. And by continuing these small acts it would hopefully click in their brains that they shouldn’t be consistently making these reckless acts.

Practice safe driving all the time, spread awareness about responsible driving, and reduce the number of deaths due to reckless driving.