Steer Your Future

Steer Your Future

Safe driving comes with experience and knowledge of what can happen and how to avoid those things. Drivers education can supply all of these things. In my experience, drivers ed. Includes behind the wheel which is the experience portion of the course. Any insight to what kinds of things occur on the road are beneficial to getting someone to understand how to deal with this when it is encountered in real life.

Especially in today’s society, until they have their drivers permit, and sometimes after that, teenagers spend their time in the car playing on their phone with their head down. Teaching them the importance of paying attention to the many obstacles that are around you or the things that can come at you at any second may help to open their eyes to these things prior to them getting behind the wheel. Narrating what is going through your mind as you drive to an upcoming driver may help them to start thinking in the same way. I think these are important steps that can be taken to help with the reduction of driving related deaths. Teaching an upcoming driver can also keep yourself on your toes and making sure you are a role model of a driver. I am not a fan of the “do as I say, not as I do” phrase that is sometimes tossed around. We should all be “doing” what is to be done.

Lives can change in a heartbeat and that heartbeat could be the turning of a light to red or even green. The state of Arizona carries the title of the highest number of red-light runners, and green light “advancers” you may call them. Put these two together and you have a deadly combination. Fortunately, I have developed a strong sense of defensive driving skills prior to moving here. Because of this, I have witnessed and avoided multiple accidents. Not enough that I have never been in one.

Driving home from our children’s three-year-old and one-year-old well checks at the doctor we were rear-ended by someone following too close when we stopped at a yellow light that promptly turned red. As in the previous paragraph, this person probably assumed we were going to go through it and “beat the light” and they were following too close giving themselves little time to react to what they should have seen coming. Everyone in the car was safe, thank God, and because of this an added skill of pumping the breaks when stopping at what should be common sense, will now be on my mind as I approach a yellow traffic light. This will give the person behind me a warning that “beating the light” is not a thought on my mind and I am stopping. Any little added warning to another driver may help prevent an avoidable accident.

This goes to show that you are never an expert at anything, no matter how long, and there is always room to grow and learn. On the road, in life, and in your careers, keep your eyes open to everything around you, learn from experiences, even ones you are not involved in, and use that knowledge to steer your future. Happy trails!