2022 Drivers Ed Essay Contest Round 2

The importance of driver education is to essentially save lives and the driver’s future finances from lawsuits is a bonus. Driver education should be the priority for any driver that has not taken research into driving seriously. The steps to be taken before driving any motor vehicle, in my opinion, are you mentally in the position to drive responsible and properly handle a motor vehicle. Motor vehicle movement and speed are based mostly on the driver’s mindset, if the driver has anger issues or having a rough day and does not address the issue before driving, he has more chances of driving recklessly and getting into an accident. The car does not drive by itself, the person is driving a car so any responsibility for any accident is solely on the driver unless proved the car malfunction such as; non-working brakes, stuck accelerator pedal. The second step I think drivers should take before driving a car is deciding whether financially, they are ok to proceed based on the decisions on the first step. Having had a few accidents under my belt I have learned the hard lessons of being a teenager and accidents are expensive. If you have full coverage of an accident, can you afford an extra hundred to two hundred dollars a month on your insurance policy if you have an accident? If the person has control of the pink slip of the car and in many cases does not have full coverage and limited liability, can you afford any expenses a lawsuit might not be covered in your insurance policy? The fourth step in taking control of driving would be checking if your car has any visible problems; leaking suspension shocks, tire with a screw in it, brakes that need maintenance, windshield having cracks, headlight and backlights working properly. These pre-checks will ensure an unnecessary accident can be avoided. I was involved in an accident when I was 18 years old. The repercussions of being in an undecided 50/50 accident with limited liability coverage was that I was left with the bill to fix my car because I did not have the extra bonus of collision coverage but no lawsuit from the other person as both insurance companies agreed it was both our faults, mine for not yielding when the green light turning yellow and his for not being aware of his surroundings, not spotting my car, and daydreaming about his life problems. Not knowing at the time driving my car with that policy and not saving enough emergency funds left me in a situation where it could have been avoided if I understood my policy and saved money. The steps I would suggest any drivers take while driving on the road is to assume no one knows how to drive. This step has saved me from over dozens of accidents waiting to happen; reversing in a parking spot and expecting the person behind me to see me backing out first while he is backing out from his parking spot, the 15 second rule while changing lanes is also an important advice for drivers many times you do not really know what the driver’s purpose is getting into an accident and must be careful. I have been in an accident where a person purposely rammed into my car while I was changing lanes for insurance money benefits because she was in a hard financial situation which insurance companies would categorize this as insurance fraud. I have experienced this attempt multiple times in the bigger cities and using the 15 second rule of changing lanes has really helped avoid lane changing accidents and taking extra seconds to change lanes is not the end of the world. My last piece of advice is, if possible, add a camera to the front and back of your windshield. Not only will the camera keep you accountable for speeding and reckless driving if an accident occurs, but also provide an extra layer of protection if the other driver starts to lie about the situation of the accident and blames you for the accident even if it’s not your fault. It is always best to be overprepared before and during driving than be caught unprepared and it increases your monthly insurance rate if you are found at fault. I have been accident free for three years and my goal is to never have an accident again. Accidents can happen in several years increments at a time, so it is especially important to have an emergency fund. Being a young driver who knows how expensive university can be here are ways to save for an emergency fund without taking money from your own pocket. There’s a company that lets you take pictures of every receipt from gas to foods from its app rewarding you with 2 pennies to 15 pennies at a time. Another site provides free to apply surveys that can reward you with 25 cents to several dollars depending on the survey expectations and length, and a digital land owner app where you can watch ads and win the app currency to buy land that pays you real money per second 365 days (about 12 months) a year. Even if the land payout is meniscal, with enough time and dedicate you will be able to reach $10 a month, that is $120 a year, $600 in emergency fund in 5 years, well above the recommended $500 emergency fund most professional advisor would suggest for any emergency needs.