Education is Prevention

I have always been one to say that the best way to prevent incidents is to educate. This applies to everything in life but most importantly for road safety. When you drive to and from work you know the roads so well you don’t have to consciously think of what you are doing. This is one form of education, learning by trial and error. Ideally these basic rules and guidelines are learned when an adolescent obtains their learners permit and is assisted in their decisions by a parent or guardian. As they progress and sign up for driver’s education they continue to learn the more detailed rules and most likely some rules they have never seen or heard of before. During this period is arguably when adolescents are the safest drivers as they have the most experienced co-pilots assisting them throughout the process. This education that we gain is one of our most powerful assets in preventing road accidents because we can avoid any possible incident by following the rules. Without this education who would go first at a four way stop? Would everyone go at once and crash? The chaos that would ensue following a lack of drivers education is hard to fathom as it is such a critical point in a driver’s career.

An important step to prevent deaths due to motor vehicle accidents is to stay vigilant and un distracted while at the wheel. This can be in a number of ways such as avoiding unnecessary distractions from passengers, avoiding distractions from yourself (eating/drinking while driving) and being sober. Speaking more in depth about sobriety and driving; this is one of the most critical points when preventing deaths. When you are under the influence your reaction time is slowed and your decision making is impaired. You have become a less experienced and capable driver with every sip. If there is ever a time when someone is under the influence and needs to go somewhere there are many other options that don’t include that person driving. Thanks to uber and lyft and other taxi companies it is more accessible for those in need to get a ride.

When I was young my mother was driving myself and one of my sisters to school. This was a typical occurrence but it was particularly icy that morning. Coming around a bend in the road our car slipped on some black ice and we spun around until we hit a nearby snow bank. Luckily, we were all alright but it was a scary experience as it was the first time in a car when I had not felt safe. I had kept that memory in my mind when I first started learning how to drive and used that feeling of security and safety as a guideline to the driving decisions I made. I have not been in an accident since that time but have witnessed accidents from my grandfather. There was a span of two years where he was driving recklessly and frequently would go off the road into the side ditches. This happened so often that he eventually knew the tow guy by name. I felt so helpless in this situation because he would not listen when we expressed our concerns with his driving and I worried that one of these accidents might put others at risk. Luckily, after one accident where he hit my mothers parked car in our driveway he started to understand the importance of driving safely. Although I believe this decision was more financially based than moral I am still thankful that he has not been in an accident since then and I am no longer worried for others on the road with him.

One of the best ways to improve yourself as a driver is to look up a drivers education manual and give it a glance through to see if there are any changes to rules or rules you may have forgotten. This manual is usually free on the DMV website and can be extra helpful to clarify questions you may have about protocols of certain driving situations. Another way to improve yourself as a driver is to eliminate distractions while driving. Some of these may include eating/drinking at the wheel, loud music, distraction passengers, and most commonly your phone. By either eliminating these or reducing their occurrence you increase your ability to focus on the road and will decrease the chances of an accident. Highlighting one of these distractions in particular is to put your phone on airplane mode or use a driving setting on your phone so that you do not receive texts or calls. Phones cause an alarming amount of accidents and fatalities. That message can wait or if it can’t you can pull over. No life is worth the risk of sending a message.