Baseball is like Driving

Tommy Lasdora once said, “Baseball is like driving, it’s the one who gets home safely that counts.” I have always believed that Driving is a privilege that is given not a requirement. There are different types of Drivers on the road today, from young adults to the elderly. And anyone who drives, should be licensed. But unfortunately, licenses do not give that guarantee of responsibility on the road. Which is why the education in driving is important to ensure that there are proper rules, responsibility, reduce the number of accidents that occur on the road, and most importantly, to save your life.

As the number of drivers grow, the number of statistics grow as well. One thing to mention, Drivers only go to class once, take a test once, and take the driving test once. And from what I have learned, practice is not the thing you do once you’re good. It is the thing you do that makes you good. This means we should emphasize training, come back to driving school every certain number of years. Education should not stop the moment you pass a test when your sixteen. Rules can often change; how do we know our drivers are educated? The importance to continue there education not only helps our Driver’s but also breaks that barrier of questions, communication, and information we often have about driving.

As we continue our road to proper education, states should implement cameras, speeding equipment, and officers on the road. One thing I have near my home is we have stop signs that could detect if you stopped and flashes red lights before you make the stop to ensure you will stop. If we implement those all over the country, it will be continuous practice for people to always stop. Speed detectors should be everywhere in my opinion. We have racers everywhere and will find any small quite road to start a race. Even in the darkest small roads should have detectors.

One experience I encountered was not with another driver, but with a deer. I attended community college right after work and class would end 8:45pm and every night I would drive down this small road near my house, very dark, dim, and surrounded by trees. One night as I was driving home, a deer had struck my car and the horns of the deer broke the window on the drivers’ seat, flipped my car, and my quick reaction was to pull down my seat because if I did not, the dear horn would have struck my head. All my air bags came out and I did not remember much after.

My vehicle was later pronounced a loss, I had a concussion for a few days after and my parents told me an officer had pulled me out from the passenger seat door because the driver’s door was jammed in. thankfully an officer was around because the road there did not have lights, cameras, nothing. Ever since that accident, I have become more paranoid driving at night, especially on that road and I will never forget how I saw my car the next day. I thank God every day for another day of life, I was a young recent driver, and you really do not know what could happen to you at any given moment. Which is why I encourage proper training again and again because we cannot continue to keep losing loved ones over something we could have avoided.

To become a better Driver is to focus first if I am being a good driver. Meaning am I checking my mirrors, seatbelt, phone away. I must check myself first, before I point fingers that its everyone else. Second, check my surrounding, meaning speed limits, stop signs, pedestrians. One thing I learned in social science we often let our brain go into power-mode because we continuously do repetitive actions this is called bounded ethicality meaning the mind is leading us towards shortcuts that can lead us off target from decisions. This then becomes part of a public safety matter because we can often create these shortcuts to unconscious decision making. So, the way how I think of it, every time we step into a vehicle, we must remember it like it was our first-time driving. And remember every time we drive it’s a privilege we are given, education should never stop the moment we pass a test, it is a continuous matter to help save lives and most importantly save your life.

Thank you for taking the time to read my perspective on Safe Driving.

Devora Alvarado