“What Was He Thinking?”

Driving around the city with my family, it has been frequent to hear the mad-tone question “What is that guy thinking?! Who gave him a driving license?”. Car accidents and related deaths may be reduced but not prevented just by being a good driver; there is usually the other party who is not a good driver and may have taken a dumb risk impulsively, or out of extra confidence. A great way to tackle this would be enforcing and improving driver education in all schools.

It is safe to say that most students will eventually become drivers or ride in vehicles a lot throughout their lives. Therefore, driver education throughout middle and high school is vital to ensure that everyone grows up with a great understanding of good driving, thoughtful decision-making on the road, and wary behavior as a rider. By doing this, we will significantly reduce the number of avoidable car accidents and related deaths; Drivers will tend to take thoughtful decisions more often and stay away from distractions, other drivers will become more predictable, and riders will have a better realization of what they might do or say that is too distracting for the driver.

Reducing the number of driving-related deaths is not only done by improving driving education in schools, however. Implementing more strict measures on the way to obtaining a license and after would also help! For example, DMV can increase the difficulty of BTW testing by testing people’s ability to make thoughtful, good decisions while on the road, and not just maneuvering the car correctly and lawfully. This could be done virtually if physically is infeasible, by making a creative use of today’s advanced car simulators. Another great measure would be the enforcement of breathalyzers in all road-legal vehicles, so that a driver cannot turn on the engine while intoxicated and put his life and others at risk. In general, coming up with more strict measures for driving should greatly reduce the number of deaths related to driving.

Personally, I have almost been in a car accident a couple of times. It has always been someone deciding to do a maneuver on front of us at the last second, such as a driver from the opposite side turning left at the final moment we approached – it was a big “What was that guy thinking?!” moment. My family however got in a couple car accidents because of distracted drivers around them. One time my family was at a stop sign when the distracted driver behind them failed to stop and rear-ended them, and another time the cars were driving at 35MPH speeds when the car on front stopped suddenly and caused a chain reaction crash. My mother’s health has been largely affected since, especially by the first accident.

Being a good driver is super important to me and should be to everyone else. I pledge, to never text and drive, to always be thoughtful and respectful on the road, and to be a good driver.