Safe Driving

Sean Love 750

• What is the importance of driver education in reducing the number deaths as a result of driving?

• What steps can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving?

• Have you ever had an experience of being in car accident or have seen your friends or family members driving irresponsibly?

• What steps can you take to be a better and safer driver as well as help others become safer on the road?

Safe Driving

At the age of around 14-17, every state requires a course on driving to be taken to receive a permit to drive with an adult. During this course, the student learns all about the dangers behind the wheel and most of what they will be facing on the road. Police, drunk drivers, distracted drivers and just plain terrible drivers at times are included. The importance of seatbelts and the separate lights that pop up when there are problems with the car are discussed during these classes. Nearly everything that you would need to know about the road is crammed into you during these couple weeks of class that you will have to remember your whole life. This is one of the problems that my first step to reduce the number of deaths on the road will solve. Instead of a few weeks of class then you are done for the rest of your life, my first solution will be an annual meeting with a licensed driving company to renew your drivers license. In this annual meeting, the licensed company will play a selection of videos to remind everyone of the dangers of driving. Everyone agrees that drunk driving is terrible and looking at their phone while driving is also equally as terrible. But some people still do it because they think they won’t be the ones to get in the crash they hear about in the news. When I watched the videos going over drunk driving and distracted driving in my classes, I was scared to do them and risk the consequences. But somewhere down the line I will have forgotten the consequences of those two actions and on an off chance take my chances to be the person in the news. We can not physically control men and women to not endanger themselves and others behind the wheel, but I would like to trust them if they were reminded of the consequences. The meetings every year would be a little excessive, so at minimum you would have to get renewed every 3 years. I have also seen on multiple occasions my family and friends driving irresponsibly, and every single time when I see them pull out a phone for even a little bit, I remind them. I remind them of the consequences or to give me the phone and I will do what they need to do that very moment, which is mostly likely not as important as everyone’s lives are in the car. Sometimes I see my family members drive with their knees for a little bit while adjusting something on their person. They have never gotten into a crash while doing something like this, but I still tell them every time to stop what they are doing and not risk it. Chance is a large factor in why almost everyone takes smalls risks like these every day. They never stop to think of the consequences in the long run if something were to go wrong, only the chance that they have of the accident happening to them, and not some poor soul halfway across the country. My first solution to reducing deaths on the rode will primarily help to solve people taking these chances nearly every day. If the people are reminded of what their actions entail, they will stop doing them so often. The steps I could take to be a better driver myself would be a stronger awareness of cars in my blind spots. Too frequently I trust my mirrors to account for everything happening around me. I have not been in any accidents so far, but if I do not change this habit quickly, it might be the reason I get into one. My actions as a driver can not fully change the actions of others, but there is no reason for me not to start trying. If I can set an example of a solid driver, I can influence my friends and family to act as I do. However, there is a limit to how much I can try and convince others to drive safer. Future projects I would like to work on would include apps through software which can help persuade people from opening apps that should distract at the wheel, such as texting and social media. This solution wouldn’t be a complete answer to the problem, but a band-aid fix to remind people what they should be doing at the wheel. The major importance of driver’s education and long term goals even after those initial weeks are major steps we could take to combatting driver deaths in the future.