Steps Towards Safe Driving

Driving education is vital to saving the lives of many people in the world. Each year 1.35 million people are killed on the road involving car crashes per year. That number is astronomically large, and a lot larger than it should be. Driver education should be a huge priority for many people because the more we can educate drivers the more accidents we can prevent. Just stepping into a car puts your life on the line, you are in a constant environment of danger due to the lack of awareness and education. We should take steps such as yearly driving tests to make sure that people can still operate vehicles, promote traveling more on public transportation to lessen the number of cars on the road, and finally put an age limit on when you can drive. As you grow older your senses can become more impaired which can cause a lack of awareness when driving, so we should put an age limit so that once you reach that limit you are no longer allowed to operate a vehicle. If you take public transportation you limit the amount of cars on the road and limit the possibility of car crashes plus you are limiting the number of fuel admissions in the environment.

I have been in a car accident, a woman driving ignored a stop sign and drove out into the middle of the intersection and hit my car on a straight away. My girlfriend was in the passenger side where the woman hit, it was very scary. Luckily no one was hurt, and my car had minor damage. Steps that you can take to become a better driver should be steps of caution. You should always drive just a little below the speed limit, stay about 30-50 feet behind the nearest car, and drive with little to no distractions. You should drive with music but not music super loud to block out the outside sound around you. You should stay attentive and stay away from your phone and try to hide away all distractions. If you are the passenger, you should stay off your phone as well.

Getting into a car accident really showed me how important driver education is and how many people are not as educated as you should be. When I got into the car accident it was raining and I had my lights on during the day. Many people do not follow this law and just drive with their windshield wipers on but not their headlights. My grandfather has always preached this law to me because when it is raining out your vision is not at a hundred percent and the light from the headlights also lets other cars on blind intersections that you are coming in their direction. This woman that hit me did not have her lights on, was on her phone and was smoking a cigarette. She was focused on anything else but the road and blew through a stop sign to hit the side of my car. It showed me how many distractions are at our fingertips as humans, and how just one little distraction can create a huge issue. It is up to us to ignore these distractions and keep our focus on the road. Cars are complicated machines and a luxury for us people to enjoy so we should not act in an ignorant manner and just completely ignore our responsibilities as people.

I believe that the handsfree law that was implemented in many states is a very good idea. This will prevent people from having anything in their hands at all besides their steering wheel. This will prevent many altercations with cars because people will not be forced to be more attentive and pay attention to their surroundings. The world is an ever changing place, it never sits still and the same goes for the environment around you. Things are constantly changing around you, the weather, the number of people and of course your location. Just the other day I was driving my friend back to his house, and I saw a stray dog in the middle of the road. I slowed down and just when I got about 30 feet from the dog it ran out in the middle of the street and I was able to stop and bring the dog to its owner. If I was speeding up or driving distracted, I might not have ever noticed the dog and I could have hit him. This reminded me to always stay attentive and be aware of my surroundings.