The Unknown Pandemic, and Easy Solutions

According to Healthline, the third leading cause of deaths in the United States is due to unintentional injuries, making up 5.9% total deaths. Car accidents fall into this category. The death count for automobile related deaths in the USA this year, reaching into the 34,000, is only 1,000 deaths shy of being double the amount of deaths of the Mexican-American War, the Afghanistan War, the War of 1812, the Iraq war, and the American Revolutionary War combined. War, at least, usually ends; people dying from automobile accidents is likely to continue indefinitely, unless decisive action is taken to stop it. The number of people that die from car accidents is high enough to be considered a pandemic, if only it were a disease.

When people receive more driving education, smaller amounts of automobile accidents are reported. This is simply cause and effect, as when one is more aware of the dangers of driving, they are more likely to avoid these pitfalls. Countries that try and cater to this idea, of more knowledge creating less deaths, have stricter laws to obtain a driver’s license and tend to also have a lower fatality rate with automobiles. Their drivers are more trained and knowledgeable, and so cause less accidents.

Several ideas have been tried and tested throughout different countries in an effort to reduce deaths due to driving, and many of them would do well to be implemented in the USA. Some places, like Switzerland and the United Kingdom, have simply made much more stringent driver’s tests in order to obtain a license in the first place. With harder tests, people have to study more to qualify, which creates more aware drivers. Other countries, like Sweden and Monaco, have lanes partitioned off from the road for bicyclists and pedestrians, which decreases the risk of any bystander deaths. Other countries attack drunk driving with more rigor by creating harsher laws against it, with more potent consequences if you’re caught driving drunk. Still other countries, like most of the ones in Europe, implement slower speed limits in urban areas to decrease the risk of death. All of these ideas, if implemented in the USA, would severely decrease the death toll created by unsafe driving and inexperienced drivers. Plus, many of them are easy to do, and only require slight changes to our current system.

Personally, I’ve never gotten in a car crash, but I have gotten close. I was in the passenger seat of a car with a friend as she drove home, and she decided to change lanes. It was night time, and she didn’t look behind her before changing. Glancing over, I saw the car, yelled, and was seconds away from reaching over to the wheel and cranking it to avoid a collision, when the other car honked and hit the brakes. Flustered, my friend jolted as she realized how close we had gotten to wrecking, and the rest of the car ride home was quiet.

My mom has gotten in two very severe car crashes; one was caused by hitting black ice while on cruise control on the highway, and the other was caused by hitting gravel while on cruise control on the highway. Neither of the times was she driving; instead, it was her mom and dad with a carload of young children. Both times the car spun out of control and flipped. On the second occasion, the car rolled several times before eventually landing upside down on top of one of her brothers, who got trapped beneath it. His life was only saved due to a passing retired paramedic that pulled over when seeing the event. Both times, thankfully, no one was killed. This experience has made her a much more careful driver, and kept her vigilant during the few times she uses cruise control. She also constantly points out that staying aware of your environment is incredibly important, and that if you’re feeling tired it’s best to pull over until you feel more awake.

One change in my own driving that I plan to implement is to always be aware of what cars are around me at all times, even if I don’t plan on switching lanes. I’ve noticed a few times where a car goes past me, and I hadn’t known it was behind me. If I stay more aware, and at some point need to suddenly switch lanes to avoid someone else’s driving, I’ll be able to move safely and avoid any further accidents. Another thing I can do to help others stay safe on the road would be to make sure none of my friends drive drunk. Since I have a religious commitment to not drink, I can make sure my friends know they can come to me if they’ve been drinking and need a ride home; at the least, I could call them a cab.

Driving safely is something that often gets overlooked, but would help everyone if implemented more.