Safe driving!

Some people wonder, “Why do I have to take driver’s education, why can’t I just drive before getting my permit?” Well here’s to answering your question. More than 150,000 teen drivers who haven’t taken drivers ed have died or have gotten injured over the past eight years. Driver’s education helps you learn the basic driving skills and rules. When you don’t take any driving lessons at one given moment you will not know what to do at a certain point on the road.

Taking drivers education can teach you how to drive safely. Wearing your seatbelt at all times will decrease your chances of getting seriously injured or dead. Over 23,824 passengers were killed in 2020, and 51% were not wearing seat belts. Wearing a seatbelt can keep you from adding onto those percentages of people who died from not wearing their seatbelt. Don’t be one of them. Another way to be safe while driving is following the speed limit. Mainly everywhere you go the speed limits will change. For example if you are driving on the freeway the speed limit is usually 70 to 80 miles per hour. Then when you are driving in a neighborhood the speed limit would probably be lower than 20 and maybe around 10-15 miles per hour. Speeding can end up in a lot of trouble; you will either get pulled over by the police or end up in a car accident. You might also get whiplashed depending if you were speeding then having to step on the breaks very hard. Driver ed will inform you on speed limits so just follow them, it’s better to be late to work then end up being in a hospital bed.

Another thing that will help you be safe on the road is just by following the road rules. There are lots of rules on the road that everyone encourages you to follow just to keep you AND others safe. Always having your eyes on the road and just watching your surroundings. Keeping your eyes on the road means not being on your phone or doing things that are distracting you from your driving. Over 400 fatal crashes happen each year due to people being on their phones texting. Another road rule to follow is whoever gets the right away, for example if there is a pedestrian, who gets the right away? The pedestrian should be the one who gets the right away meaning they pass before you. Another rule they encourage you to follow is to always use your signal light when you are turning into a lane. By doing this it will alert the people around you that you are switching lanes, or just turning, making them let you go and not cause a chance of an accident happening.

Next, something to keep in mind when it comes to driving is always being aware of your surroundings and being cautious. When driving a lot of things are happening around you and anything CAN happen at any moment. Always knowing what is going on around you can decrease the percentage of car accidents each year. When you are driving and you notice there is a car accident, always try to avoid it so then you won’t be causing traffic, because some people would drive by and just watch what is going on. Another thing is if you notice people are around you always drive slow because you do not want to end up hurting another person just because you didn’t see them or something. Lastly, always pay attention to the road conditions. During the weather changes it will change the way you drive. For example, if you are driving in the summer on a hot day the road conditions shouldn’t be that bad to if you are driving in winter on a snowy day you would have to be cautious because the roads might be icy and slippery and you wouldn’t want to be driving fast on ice then having to press the breaks and go sliding in to another car.

Lastly, another way to be safe on the road is by being confident in your driving skills and learning. Confidence is always key to almost everything. You always want to drive with confidence so you don’t be stiff around the wheel and that can lead to scary driving and get in an accident.

Over the past few weeks, when I was in the car driving I’ve seen multiple car accidents. One time I saw 3 car accidents in different places in the same night. When you look at the cars it is all torn up and wretched.