The Reality Of The Back Seat Rider

Although I don’t drive yet I have been a back seat rider to some irresponsible drivers. I like to call the back seat the dungeon of the doomed! Because once you buckle your seat belt and the car starts there is no going back. The speed of the car is out of your control, the steering wheel is out of your control. And If you dare let your mind spiral too long, anxiety will come creeping in . Thoughts like “ maybe I should’ve never asked for a ride ?”, “what if we crash ?” “ Why are they going so fast ?” “ I’m never riding in here again “

The sad truth is I’ve been in some back seats where the driver was drunk or my Uber driver was dozing off and I had to keep a conversation going to keep them awake which is terrifying. As teens, we put trust in adults and sometimes get let down because they lack the ability to be responsible. Driver education is so important because you need the knowledge to know what a sign means on the road and so much more. From years of observation, I believe it’s not only important to drive for you but others around you also. Because You might come in contact with an enraged driver there like a baby behind a wheel throwing temper tantrums because they are not getting their way so they switch lanes when they wanna speed or when their lane is starting to slow down compared to another lane. They cut people off if someone chooses to not let them over and much more. I think they believe life is a GTA game which is kinda crazy but have you ever rode with one because I have and all the speeding led us to almost hitting a tractor trailer? I was so scared and they acted as if nothing happened. What I didn’t understand most was where we were heading wasn’t that important. So why speed ? I asked myself at that moment. Sometimes people don’t understand that their lack of safe driving is affecting everyone around them from the people who are riding in the car to the people that have to be on the road with them. When I start driving I will not text and drive because I have realized how unfocused you get because once you text you get excited to see the reply so it’s like a loop I think everyone should avoid it we should make a smart choice and just put our phones down. I’ll make sure to keep the right amount of distance between me and another car this is important in case someone wants to get over or slam on breaks I will have time to stop a car accident. But can we admit some products on the market contribute to this problem like phone mounts? I saw this man watching a movie on his phone and driving. I was so shocked . Some steps that should be taken to reduce the number of car crashes is adding management of emotions to driving lessons. 56% of car accidents happen because of ranged drivers. I believe it’s important to make us relearn the information every few years because we all forget things over time and a refresher can’t hurt anyone.

Lastly, safety should always be our Priority although sometimes we leave the house late. Traffic gets annoying and we have a set time we have to be somewhere. We have to learn how to prepare better for unexpected events and take deep breaths when we are overwhelmed, maybe turn on our favorite song in the car while we wait for traffic to die down. With some bad experiences with being in a car with unsafe drivers, I learned valuable lessons that I believe sometimes people learn once it’s too late. As a community, it’s important to look out for one another and sometimes that means confronting your friend, brother, sister, mother, and so on about their bad habits when driving, and on the flip no side, it may mean not getting a ride for certain people anymore. It also may mean risking a family member or friend being upset with you but it’s more important to make them aware of the behavior. We need as a country to not only look out for ourselves but each other because we all have families and we all have the same goal when driving which is to get to our destination. And if you’re ever in a hurry there are alternatives. Invest in an e-z pass if it’s available to you. This pass gives you access to tools that can get you away from traffic and to your destinations faster. Let’s all practice safe driving more