Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

Nothing will good will ever come from trying to be “cool” while driving. This could be trying to impress your friends by speeding, or driving dangerously. This could be from accelerating far too fast when the road conditions are not ideal from ice, snow, rain, etc. When you do stupid things and make bad decisions, the only thing that comes from it is an even worse consequence.

Driving should be the sole focus when you are in a vehicle. There should be absolutely no texting, excessively loud music (leads to dancing or distractions), phone calls without Bluetooth, and any other bad distractions. Distracted driving is a very unfortunate death in our society because it is extremely avoidable. There are so many deaths that take place that could be potentially minimized or completely avoided if people just focused on the road. This goes for impaired driving as well. It is such a tragedy people decide to not follow simple road rules like speeding, driving impaired and distracted driving. Accidents will happen, but those are accidents. When you choose to drive impaired, speed excessively, or be distracted, that is not an accident. That is a bad decision which leads to an even worse consequence which could have been avoidable. I will never understand why people will do these things. If you are drinking, spend the 20 dollars on a cab. If you get a text message, wait the 5 minutes to answer it. If you are speeding, you are only saving mere minutes, so slow down. The worst part about these things is not only is the driving ruining their own life, they are ruining the passengers, along with person on the other side of the collision. They are completely innocent, following all the road regulations but life will be changed for ever.

Driver’s education is extremely important for reducing the number of deaths while driving because you can teach people while they are young. When people are young, or fresh to driving they are a lot easier to mold habits and behaviours. When someone is older and has been driving a certain way for so many years, it will be hard to change there way of driving. Now if you teach someone the proper and safe way from the start, they have a clean slate and will be much easier to teach.

There are many things that can be done to try and reduce the number of deaths while driving. The first step would be to make harsher punishment for breaking road regulations with less warnings. People will be less inclined to break the rules if the punishment is severe. You could increase all fines by 50% and give almost no warnings. Make people unable to afford breaking the rules or scared too. The next thing you could do is continue the driver’s education and make sure it is affordable for all. Increase as much advertising as possible for drivers ed to make sure young people know how to drive properly and know the risks of driving dangerously. The last thing you could do is try and get rid of single lane highways. Many of the most dangerous accidents are head on collisions on single lane highways. Obviously, it would be extremely expensive but if we could phase them out or reduce them it would help immensely. Most of the issues are when people are impatient, so if we could add a passing lane in some spots, I think accidents would decrease.

I like to think of myself as a safe driver that follows all of the road regulations. What I can do to be a better and safer driver would be to make sure I continue doing so. I would say the most important thing I can do is to remind anyone I am driving with to drive safely and the dangers of dangerous driving. If I do see or drive with anyone driving recklessly it would be in my best interest and society’s to correct it. I have seen many of my friends and family members drive irresponsibly. What I have done is asked them to drive more safely and every time they are extremely respectful and apologetic. Unfortunately, first hand I have seen the effects of a severe accident from not following the traffic conditions. Around 7 years ago my older cousin was in a severe car accident, there was no impaired driving, speeding, and all road regulations were followed. The only thing was she was not wearing her seatbelt. She was launched from the vehicle and in rough shape. She was in critical condition for a week and had a leg amputated. Now it is horrible what happened, but thankfully nobody died and she is doing quite well now. Lessons have been learned from that to always wear your seatbelt. That is why I tell people to wear their seatbelts because you never know what can happen and why I wear it no matter the distance. When I tell people this story, they always change their tune about seatbelts as it is an eye opener.