Road Safety Interventions That Can Save Lives

“Screeeech!” an oncoming driver’s car brakes squeeled before I heard a loud “Bang!” as his car slammed into the front passenger’s side of my friend’s vehicle as we tried to turn at a junction. Glass surrounding the headlights of our car sprawled onto the ground as it laid shattered on the roadway instantaneously followed by the screams of my three other friends riding along in the car. What should have been a routine, candid lunch break during our semester turned into a gloomy day to forget. This was not the first time my friend drove distracted by looking at his phone and singing along to the lyrics of loud music blasting and reverberating through the doors and glass of the car. Only this time, it resulted in tragedy. Whilst the five of us in the car fortunately escaped with no injuries, my friend’s car was badly damaged. Had the oncoming driver travelled any faster without slowing down, I may not even be here to write this piece. Accidents like this are not uncommon, but measures can be implemented by drivers to significantly reduce the chance of such an occurrence.

The world statistics related to deaths that arise from vehicular accidents are stunning. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 1.3 million people die from road traffic accidents every year. Furthermore, an additional 20 to 50 million people suffer non-fatal injuries including many resulting in disability. It begs the question: “What are the key contributory factors that either cause or influence driver accidents?” The main factors identified by the WHO are: (1) speeding, (2) driving under the influence of alcohol and other psychoactive substances, (3) non-use of seat-belts, and child restraints, (4) distracted driving, (5) unsafe road infrastructure, (6) unsafe vehicles, (6) inadequate post-crash care, and (7) inadequate law enforcement of traffic laws. Of the seven factors put forward by the WHO, five are directly under the control of drivers which suggests that driver education can go a long way to significantly reduce the number of deaths related to driving. Following my accident experience, I pondered about the possible education measures that can be taken to reduce vehicular accident deaths.

The driver education interventions I believe that can be implemented without much cost are as follows: (1) Refresher driving programs every 5 years. Driver licensing arrangements can be structured to allow drivers to take refresher programs every 5 five years after they have obtained their driving license. If the drivers succeed in the refresher programs they would be allowed to continue driving. However, if the drivers fail, their driving license should be suspended until they succeed. In this way, only those drivers that are well educated on safety protocol will be fit to drive whilst removing those that lack the required competence to drive safely. (2) Online driver safety webinar programs that allow drivers to accumulate points. Opportunities for drivers to take driver safety courses online can be explored and possibly implemented. Such interventions can accommodate drivers in circumstances when they may not have time to engage in the physical face-to-face driver safety programs. A system like this could award points to drivers for their effort in building and or enhancing driver safety. Therefore, this acts as incentive to current drivers ensuring that they are keeping current with the present driving safety practices and improving the knowledge base of driver’s license holders. (3) Reward system for drivers who display a propensity to be free from accidents. Authorities responsible for driver safety can implement systems for rewarding driver safety and not simply depend on the drivers’ insurance companies to provide them with premium discount rewards for their safe driving experiences. Systems such as cash vouchers for gas for drivers who use their vehicles safely can provide great incentives to improve driver safety.

While these suggestions are beneficial for everyone, I proactively engage in measures to ensure that I drive safely. (1) One such measure is to drive with the music kept at a low volume. This allows me to hear surrounding vehicles and ensures that I concentrate solely on the responsibility of driving my car safely without being distracted by loud music. (2) Another safety measure that I have implemented is the removal of my smartphone when driving. I turn my cellphone off and tuck it away in my glovebox before I start driving to ensure that I am not distracted by phone calls, text messages and random notifications that will audibly, visibly and physically distract me whilst I am driving. The rule prevents me from sending and receiving texts, scrolling through social media and conversing with people on the phone while driving allowing me place my sole focus on the road ahead of me. (3) Furthermore, I ensure that I am well fed and rested before I start driving. If I am not rested, I do not drive and simply use an Uber to get me to my destination. I also eat well and rest before I drive to make sure that I am energized and able to focus when I am ready to drive. This prevents me from eating while I am driving. It is an added responsibility to simultaneously use my hands to eat and manoeuvre the steering wheel whilst looking at other vehicles in the vicinity. To mitigate this risk, I simply elect to eat before I drive and not while I’m driving to make certain that I am concentrating on safely driving the vehicle. (4) Additionally, every five years I take a physical driver safety course as a refresher. This measure periodically keeps me current on driver safety practices to reduce the risk of me making silly decisions while driving. These rules ensure that I protect myself, friends, family, and other drivers keeping everyone safe on the road.

These education measures, once implemented effectively, can go a long way to reduce the number of deaths, injuries, and subsequent costly medical support in our environments. Additionally, my personalized rules protect not only myself, but occupants of my vehicle and other drivers safe from accidents. The benefits can certainly be extended to road users other than drivers and contribute significantly to bringing the WHO vehicle accidents annual statistics down.