Safety Saves

It is extremely important to complete a driver’s education course. Without it, people are fairly uneducated about the laws of the roadways and how they should continue when they get into awkward situations. Some drivers have no idea what their next move should be, and put others in danger because of it. If everyone took a drivers education course, this would reduce the amount of chaos going on and it would help others be more responsible. People do not realize how important safe driving is, and how easily they put someone’s life at risk when they do something wrong.

Steps that should be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving include enforcing the laws more. Law enforcement should never let anyone off with a warning if they aren’t buckled, if they were texting and driving, if they ran a stop sign and much more. If they do, then the culprits will keep doing it without a second thought because they believe that since the authority let them go and didn’t ticket them, that it isn’t that bad of a law to break. When in reality, it is so easy to die from each of these. You could save your own life and others lives by ensuring everyone in the car is buckled, because the smallest crash could be lethal. The next crime that can be easily executed is texting and driving. People think that sending the smallest text such as “ok” will do no harm. What they don’t understand is that they aren’t invincible. People often believe that “it won’t happen to them” and then it does. Texting and driving takes your complete attention away from the road and into using your fingers to type the right letters, which is difficult even at a stand still. I think that cell phones shouldn’t be able to work while the car is driving. You should be able to send your last text, play your music, then as soon as your car turns on your phone is unavailable until you come to a stop and your car is turned off. Next is running a stop sign. This is more dangerous than people think. Someone could be flying down the road and if you don’t take the time to stop completely and look both ways before proceeding, then you can get hit by the flying driver. There are many different scenarios that could occur if you run a stop sign, this is just one example.

I have not been in a car accident myself, but both of my parents have on two separate occasions, both of which were not their fault at all. My mother was lucky enough to walk away but my father wasn’t. He was driving on the interstate with his buddies at midnight, when all of the sudden their lives were taken by a jackknifed tanker truck that had no lights. The driver of the truck said he swerved to avoid deer, but people also think he fell asleep. That was six years ago and we still haven’t stopped grieving, it is a reminder everyday to be thankful for our lives and to drive safely because you never know what could happen. My mothers accident was not as severe as my fathers but still was very scary. My mothers car broke down on her way to work one day, and she called AAA and they sent out a tow truck. While my moms car was being loaded onto the back of the truck, a vehicle came speeding around the corner and hit the back of my mothers car, where it then collided into the tow truck, causing my mothers car to be totaled. She was injured but not horribly. This has opened our eyes to the dangers of others driving. Something so innocent can turn into a bloodbath so quickly and it is not understood well enough for people to stop driving irresponsibly.

I believe that taking proper precautions while driving can save so many lives, if not all of them. To better my safe driving, I always pretend there is a cop right next to me waiting to pull me over with just one wrong move. This ensures that I am always doing everything I am supposed to do. To help my friends and family become safer on the road, I tend to tell them about my parents and their situations, because I once thought “Oh it would never happen to me.” but now, I am afraid to lose another loved one because I now know that it can happen to anyone, and it does all the time.