In The Driver’s Seat

Jalen Delaney

07/03/2020

In the driver’s seat

Being in the driver seat is a huge responsibility. Not only are you responsible for your own life and the life of your passengers but you are responsible for the other drivers on the road with you. There are several ways that you can practice safe driving such as taking a drivers ed class. The importance of drivers ed is to help you learn the rules of the road and to practice safety on the road when driving. Drivers ed will teach you how to avoid getting into accidents such as if you are driving in rainy weather or under icy conditions.

There are several steps that could be taken to reduce the number of deaths when driving for example, people should not text and drive. Texting while driving causes you to be distracted and is extremely dangerous because you do not have your eyes focused on the road and what is in front of you. Another way to reduce deaths while driving is to never drive when you are tired. If you are tired pull over to a safe place and get some rest. Another main cause of death while driving is drinking while driving. When you are drinking and driving you do not have full control of your mindset because you are intoxicated.

Since I am a new driver, I have never experienced being in a car accident, however several of my family members have been in car accidents. My older brother was in a car accident because he was driving while tired. He was exiting off the highway and he dozed off and ran into the medium in the road. He immediately learned his lesson about driving while tired. My mother was in a car accident due to following too closely in traffic. She was in bumper to bumper traffic and was not paying attention and hit the car in front of her. Fortunately, both were not injured, nor was the driver but their cars were severely damaged.

There are several steps that I will practice becoming a safer driver. The first step is when I first get in the car, I would put my phone on driver mode. This feature is on most smartphones and it will silence your phone from text notifications and other phone distractions. Another step is to put together a playlist of songs that I can listen to avoid searching for music while I am driving. It is also important to set your music at a decent volume level to be able to hear other drivers around me. Another important step to practice being a safe driver is that if I am driving with several passengers, I will make sure before I start the car that we all put on our seatbelts. This will ensure by doing this that we are all being safe when they are driving with me and they will continue to practice this even when they are driving with other people.