No Chance

I’m from a small farm town in northwest Missouri and driving is a huge part of life, whether it be cars, atvs, or even tractors. Sadly, there is almost a culture of unsafe driving here, it’s common to see people driving intoxicated who think it can’t be too bad since they’ve yet to crash and many people who text while driving to deal with the long drives. I’m constantly hearing about crashes in my county and almost all of those involve someone not wearing a seatbelt, sometimes even a friend, who was driving while busy with other things. Most people could care less about their driving habits until a major accident happens to someone close to them. You must understand the cause and the outcome to change your idea of safe driving. Crash causes come in many forms such as a deer, other drivers, or just bad road conditions, some are inevitable and are just the risk of driving, but when distracted you give yourself little to no chance of avoiding it and increase your risk greatly. No matter how well you know the road there can always be something new or different about it, workers along the road helping to make the road safer or possibly a crash around the next corner. Many crashes can be avoided by making small but safer choices. Distracted driving can encompass many things from the usual such as texting or being intoxicated, it can also include things such as eating, talking with others, or even just daydreaming. Many don’t understand the risk of operating a vehicle distracted even if that distraction is something that doesn’t seem like a big deal such as skipping a song. Driving is a privilege, to be able to control a few thousand pounds of metal going up to 70 miles per hour next to others is a huge responsibility for anyone. Many people have not witnessed the full result of a crash. Sure, some have been in a fender bender or had a friend’s friend in a bad crash but until you’ve gone through a crash not sure if you’ll be ok or not, you probably aren’t going to fully comprehend the possible dangers of driving. One of the most common culprits of distracted driving is texting, it may not seem like much but those few seconds that you’re looking down could be the time needed to avoid danger. That small action of looking at your phone takes away precious seconds needed to avoid a possibly dangerous situation. Three seconds is about how long it takes for someone to check a phone or look back at a passenger. Now think about how far your vehicle has traveled in that short amount of time, 250 feet if traveling at 60 mph. That is far enough for any type of danger to appear that you simply won’t be nearly as prepared for. Some accidents are unavoidable, but you can give yourself a much better chance of walking away when you wear a seatbelt.The more people who understand and recognize the risk and also the ways to increase your safety, the less lives will be lost on the roads. Think back to when you first started driving, you were probably around 15 years old, remember how your hands were glued to the wheel and your eyes were constantly looking for danger, driving just a tiny bit slower. I think some of that beginning driver mindset is what we need to be safer on the road. A great way to help reduce crashes is just to remind your family or friends how to be just a little safer driving if they’re being unsafe. Advocating for your friends and family to develop better driving habits may seem annoying, but if it saves them money or even their lives, it’ll be worth it. Driving smarter can be done in many ways from decisions involving distraction, no matter how small or big that distraction may seem, to just putting your seatbelt on, or even just slowing down a bit My father works for the highway department and even with all of their training, it’s still a dangerous job, with the biggest threats to road workers being distracted and speeding drivers. Seeing the aftermath of those crashes and knowing just how common it is has greatly increased his understanding of the risk of driving and in turn helping me. Diving is ingrained into our lifestyles, I don’t see the possibility of driving going away, but each of us can make it so much safer for ourselves and others. The more you research and understand how dangerous distracted driving can be to not only you but also those around you, the more that information will hopefully stick with you and make you a safer and better driver. There will always be accidents and distractions but the more we practice safer habits, no matter how small, the safer the roads will be for everyone.