The Importance of Safe Driving

The Drivers ed Initiative Award: In the Driver’s Seat

Hayden Ossinger

Safe driving is becoming much more important as the roads are finding themselves getting more congested every year. It is necessary to educate new drivers with all of the information they need to not only maintain their safety, but the safety of those that are also driving alongside them. I know from first-hand experience how quickly a driver’s situation can depreciate during a drive. When I was just beginning to drive, within the first few months, I rolled my vehicle multiple times while driving on a multi-lane highway. I was following another car planning to meet them at a mechanics shop I never made it to. After we began our trip the raining, which had hovered over us that entire day, escalated from manageable to an utter onslaught with visibility severely hindered. Right before I crashed I hit a puddle, which seemed much more than a puddle at the time, and I began to hydroplane. I skidded off the road and eventually met enough dirt to flip me. I rolled three times before slowing down and landing upright facing the highway. My vehicle was totaled, yet I miraculously survived with no injuries to boast of. I understand the margin of luck that I was extended that day, I also understand that if I had just a little bit more experience than I would not have crashed at all. The only thing I did wrong was I hit my brakes, I kept my steering wheel straight and held on tight, but my reflexes deviated and I automatically slammed the brakes. To this day I have driven in abhorrent weather and I have faced these circumstances over and over again without losing another vehicle. That experience that day was pivotal for my driving career, I learned a considerable amount about both my reactions but also roadway dynamics. I have used that information to avoid crashing ever since.

The reason that I divulged so much is because at the base of what I went through is just a learning experience, I used it and applied what I found to better my driving. With greater concentrations of successful education there will be fewer unnecessary crashes such as mine. Of course, there will be outliers and crashes will continue, but crashes that are caused by ignorance will be drastically reduced. The fact that I did not die that day is astounding, but I recognize that many who experienced the same thing did not have the privilege of walking into their own house an hour and a half later. Education is the first step to creating a safer road, but safe driving must be enforced during the entirety that a person is tasked with driving. At the end of the day laziness or fatigue may win over logic and clarity, therefore, the only way to ensure safety is refresh and prioritize it in our lives. Otherwise, it is swept away in the hustle.