Never Hurts to be Safe on the Road

I have been driving ever since I was legally allowed to. I was so excited to get behind the wheel and drive myself around because it meant that I had something that I desired for a long time; my independence. I no longer had to ask or rely on my parents to drive me around. And with that independence, I quickly realized that it came with a lot of responsibility, because driving can be very dangerous. But the further I continued to drive and increased my comfortability on the road, I managed to find some tricks to avoid unnecessary accidents. For example, driver education classes. They proved to be an important part of a driver’s safety, that can give some tips to reduce the numbers of accidents and in extreme cases, death. That, and taking precautionary steps is what helped me from experiencing a horrible accident to ensuring my safety on the road, and eventually teaching others how to be more responsible on the road.   

Anytime someone receives permission to drive on the road, they are usually required to take a driver’s education class and pass an exam to prove that they are capable of managing a car. I found that those classes tend to improve one’s ability to drive safely and avoid accidents that can lead to harm or death. They help driver’s read the road and situations that are occurring or that can possibly occur. The main part of learning about driver education is to learn how to drive defensively, which means “looking for other vehicles, thinking ahead to avoid collisions, and responding quickly in an emergency” (The Importance). Having a defensive driving technique, which is taught through educational classes, can limit the number of deaths that happen on the road because people are more aware and know what to look for. If most of the drivers on the road can learn the defensive technique, the death rate due to car accidents is likely to go down. This is statistically proven, by the AAA Foundation, as they state that driver education classes’ “associate with lower incidence rates” as much as 4.3% (Georgia). Not only do the driver education classes provide people with the rules of the road, but it also ensures that in case of an emergency or potential disaster, people are prepared to avoid or deal with the repercussions. In the end any percentage of reduction in the rates in which incidents that can lead to death to occur, is a massive boost for people that choose to drive. 

The first time I ever experienced a truly horrible crash was when I was six years old. My mother was driving down highway 395, heading home with me and my little brother in the back. Another car was speeding behind us and when they eventually caught up to us, they tried to cut us off and ended up clipping the front of our car. The crash took our front bumper off and damaged another car. Luckily nobody was severely hurt, but the entire highway was closed off because pieces of the cars were all over the highway. Since then, I was always taught to drive responsibly because one can never know another driver’s intentions and habits on the road. 

I always try my best to take proper care when it comes to driving, but there may be additional actions that I, and everyone could take not just to help others on the road, but to also protect ourselves. This can include steps such as, make sure you are not texting or on the phone while driving, never drive with anger or get annoyed if someone else does something that they are not supposed to do, and make sure your passengers are not a distraction. This involves probably the most important rule of always having your seat belt buckled. Efforts like these will make driving much easier and the driver further focused on the road to be able to act if needed and prevent deaths. 

In conclusion, there are many opportunities out there to learn and practice safe driving habits, to avoid accidents and deaths on the road, such as driver education classes and the internet can give tips and steps. Additionally, experiencing a car accident at an early age has helped me become a safe driver and rarely having to worry about causing a crash. Driving a car is never going to be one hundred percent safe and there is no guarantee that death will never occur, but with the proper education and precautionary steps, the damages can be mitigated.