One more safe driver

Operating a vehicle at first thought may sound fun or mundane, but in reality, it is dangerous. Every time you step behind the wheel you put your life and everyone else on the roads, life at risk and I do not say this to discourage you from driving I say it so that you may be cautious and safe. But how do you become a safe driver?

Before you are officially on the road driving from destination to destination you must have a license and that is where being educated comes into play. Beyond just obtaining the license there are a lot of scenarios you can come across when driving. For example, imagine you are driving and behind you there is a sudden burst of flashing lights, and a siren starts to blare, and an ambulance begins to rush to a scene, what would you do? would you clear the lane? Would you completely stop in the road? continue to drive? When driving you must have this information and be able to react appropriately at that moment. Another scenario that can confuse a driver and even lead to an accident, is how to react when a traffic light flashes red or yellow. When flashing yellow it means to yield and when red it acts as a stop sign for those who see it for the first time, they could watch those around them to see or taken aback and that could lead to severe injury or death. But that is why understanding and having that knowledge of the road is so important and if everyone knew those deaths could be reduced greatly.

But as a driver I realize that the drivers must care about these rules, not only is ignorance a factor in deaths on the road, but an even greater factor is also negligence. There are drivers who know the rules and dangers behind speeding, running lights and stop signs, tailgating, and still do it. They still needlessly put themselves and others in danger rather than saying to themselves “everyone has somewhere to be” or “Having to go around is better than getting in an accident” to keep themselves patient. I believe that if everyone practiced certain safety habits on the road like avoiding distracting yourself while driving it would save many lives. Another way that can help is listening to music that will put you at ease when driving, this method works very well in traffic. Another wonderful way to keep yourself safe when driving is to stay vigilant by watching your surroundings, make sure to scan the cars, lights, and streets so if anything happens you can quickly and calmly react.

I have seen firsthand the result of a lack of cautiousness on the road multiple times on my own, but it is truly a shock when you have no control of the situation. For instance, I once almost got into a car accident with my friend. One late night me and my friend both had an event to attend and with my lack of gas in my own car I decided to ride with my friend. He picks me up and after a couple minutes of driving I notice that when it comes to the rules of the road, they are only suggestions to him. He is speeding and using his phone while driving but we make it to our destination. After the fun times have been had we look at the time and notice that the time is coming closer to our curfew, so we start to rush home. Getting off the highway we were almost hit because of his urgency to get to the exit and then when approaching a yellow light, I had to tell him to slow down and with good reason. If I had not and he tried to make it past the light, we would have been hit by a truck driver that ran a light that night. My reason for telling you this is to warn you again of the dangers, we were lucky that night but there are countless people who pass away from car accidents just like the one we could have been in.

I believe that if everyone took the time to care for or be concerned about every other driver on the road and took precautions to avoid these unnecessary deaths. Or imagine if establishments that serve alcohol had shuttles to escort intoxicated people home or lower the strength of drinks. I say this because we cannot begin to deal with road problems without talking about what could be causing these deaths. Impairment, Anger, disregard, the structure of the streets, there are many factors. But for now, it starts with us, the drivers who use the streets with purpose and responsibility. It takes looking into ourselves and seeing what we do wrong and knowing what to fix. I can admit that I need to give other drivers space in traffic and turn on my signals earlier but what do you think you need to fix? Because whatever it is I can assure you that correcting that problem will make the road safer not only for yourself but those around and with you.