Accident Prevention

Distracted driving has been a serious issue for years, with the amount of teenage deaths it’s received national attention from all over. Driver education can only teach so much, mine worked somewhat, but I think we should go more in-depth on the consequences of being a distracted driver and what happens when you are in a situation where you are about to crash. Fear can be a helpful tool if used in the right way. I don’t think the young people of today know how dangerous it is to drive and that they aren’t as physically or mentally strong enough to avoid or survive a car crash while preoccupied with your phone. Diver education missed when it came to the opportunity of this, they only really seem to touch base on street signs and right of way. I just completed driver’s education too, so I have a very vivid memory of this.

The steps to reduce the numbers of deaths are to lower the speed limit for obvious reasons. Slower driving means less velocity, which means a less likely chance of dying and more of a chance of avoiding a reckless driver. We should invest into airbag companies. A lot of people die from the airbags alone and not even the collision; You can never be too safe. Requiring teens to drive with a special wheel, where it requires you to drive with both hands. This means you can’t text people and drive. I don’t remember the exact name but the idea was presented on the television show Shark Tank. This being mandated for teen drivers could prevent deaths and spread awareness all over even for adults who want to become more focused drivers. We need safer roads. In Indianapolis, any lower-income community you’ll find a bunch of holes in the street. We need the bare minimum to be able to drive and operate during the rain, sleet and snow.

If we can get all state governments to spend some money on fixing the rural areas for needed traveling, we could prevent a large amount of accidents. More accidents and more deaths happen on the highway compared to the street. This is because of the dangers of driving on the way, we need a safety program with funding from either the government and/or donors. As people who care about driver safety, we need incentives for driving on the street. Lasty, we also need to make public transport better overall. Right now, it’s just not sanitary and not as quick as it should be. A better public transport system reduces accidents and reduces pollution. Once we as a country can make the buses, trains and subways cleaner for not just low income but middle class people, the popularity will skyrocket. This has been proven to be effective in China, who has some of the best public transport in the world. They have three times our population, with 450,000 accidents compared to our 6 million car accidents a year. This clearly needs to change, the roads need to be more safer to create a better country and it only starts with people like us.

My most irresponsible moment was driving too fast. I got tired of the slow speed and started to crank it up and swerve lanes. This is sort of a trend where I grew up called “Cutting up” where you cut drivers off and drive in front of them. I saw a video the next day online of somebody crashing from attempting this trend. I felt like God and the world was telling me to stop and I did. That could have been me and what I did was just selfish. The steps I take to become a better driver is to set my playlist up before I start driving so I don’t have to fiddle with the radio while I’m driving. I make sure I have the correct shoes on, no Croc’s. Lasty, I put my phone on Do Not Disturb so everyone knows I’m driving. God bless, I’ve never been into a serious accident, or any accident at all. Thank you for reading and considering me for your scholarship.

There are many times where friends and family have driven incorrectly. It shows their recklessness and not really caring about whether they get hurt or not. It comes down to how much the driver values their life. Also, the peer pressure to look cool in front of your friends causes a lot of accidents as a society, our young people need to build more integrity. Be someone YOU are instead of somebody another person wants you to be.