Tips and Tricks for Road Safety

Driving as a skill is a huge staple of American Society. Most people learn how to drive at some point or another, with the biggest exceptions being in cities where public transportation is a better bet. The fact that so many U.S. citizens are drivers means that it is incredibly important that we learn how to drive safely and responsibly.

One of the most important things a person can teach a new driver to do to reduce the number of deaths on the road is to not make light of it. It seems like a small thing, but the simple act of taking a problem seriously means that you also make an effort to avoid contributing to the problem. You pay extra attention to things like signs and remember to do things like use blinkers to indicate a turn. In addition, a driving instructor can encourage their students to be polite and calm on the road, reducing the likelihood of aggressive or reckless driving. Many accidents are a result of impatience; with semi-trucks, with “slow” drivers, with driving time itself. Safety is always more important than speed.

When acting on these behaviors and attitudes, there are practical steps that can be taken to ensure road safety. There are, of course, the obvious answers – don’t drive while inebriated or fatigued, don’t drive aggressively, take weather conditions seriously and plan accordingly. There is another step that is not as obvious, however, and it’s to use public transportation such as buses and trains. After all, if a fatigued person rides a train from work to their home, they’re not driving while fatigued. The same goes for people who are inebriated, or distracted. As an added bonus, there will be less people on the roads, so the likelihood of accidents as a result of traffic is reduced as well.

I have never been in a true car wreck. There have been a couple times where I have skidded off the road due to car troubles or weather conditions, but neither of these instances resulted in injury. However, a few years ago when I was just out of high school, two teenagers from my hometown died in a car wreck. I grew up in a small, rural community, so although I wasn’t close with them, I knew them. One was the older sister of one of my friends, and the other was a girl in my church’s youth group. This accident rattled the community and deeply affected everyone around me. As a final cherry on top, my best friend’s brother was involved in the wreck. He was okay, but I remember her waiting in my living room, desperately waiting for news about his well-being. It’s not something I’ll ever be able to forget.

In my own family, my dad has had a speeding habit for as long as I can remember. He’s a skilled enough driver that none of us have ever been injured while he’s driving, but it’s nerve wracking to see how far he can push the speed limit. He’s never been in a wreck, but sometimes it feels like a matter of when, not if.

For my part, the best way for me to ensure road safety would be to follow my own advice. I know most of the things you’re supposed to do on the road (though, having grown up in a small town, I’m far less familiar with city driving), but the more experienced you get, the easier it can be to ignore that knowledge, or assume that you’ll be fine. Car wrecks are things that happen to other people, not you. I had an experience a couple years ago where I was driving home from college to be with my family for the weekend. It was nighttime and it was snowing heavily. I did try to compensate by driving slowly, but when it began to snow more heavily, I didn’t slow down as much as I should have. My car slipped and I veered off the road, knocking down a mile marker as I did. I was very lucky; there were ditches on either side of the road, but I happened to veer onto the driveway to one of the houses not in city limits. I was also lucky in that I was most of the way back to my family’s home, so they were able to come and pick me up. I was lucky, but I very easily could have been seriously injured. I did learn from that experience that when weather conditions are that poor, safety is far more important than speed.