Taking The Initiative

Completing driver’s education is one of the most important parts in the licensure process. It is necessary to do research and decide what driving school has the highest success rate, what parent or family member you are practicing with and how consistent the driver is practicing. Driver education protects all parties including the driver, passengers and pedestrians. To keep everyone safe, it is imperative that driver education is taken seriously. This is a significant factor in the importance of driver education reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving.

To reduce the number of deaths related to driving, drivers must understand the risk when partaking in phone usage. Even if it is only to change the music, all it takes is one second for an accident to happen. In attempt to combat this, drivers should be utilizing phone mounts. Texting and driving have become a common practice and could be eliminated with responsible drivers. Having a designated driver could help reduce the number of deaths related to driving. Often, adults undermine their amount of alcohol intake and assume they can drive. Teenagers are slightly more cautious of this because of the they are shown many videos about this topic in drivers’ education as well as it being seen in the media, so the information is constantly being renewed; in addition to teenagers being underage. For adults, DUI’s are more frequent and adults are seemingly more carless about the topic. To reduce the number of deaths related to driving, I propose the idea for drivers to retake drivers’ education every 5 years.

Reducing the number of deaths related to driving means checking those “blind spots”. Mirrors are very helpful; however, they do not allow drivers to see everything. After years of driving, many drivers become very comfortable with their driving skills and believe they don’t have to utilize their blinkers to notify other drivers of what they are doing. This is courtesy to other drivers, but it also prevents accidents when drivers are communicating with other drivers about their next maneuver.

Driving without a seatbelt is a practice I’ve seen become more common between my family and friends. Some of them have cars that notify them to put the seatbelt on with a “dinging noise”, which is the only reason they put the seatbelt on. Not for their safety or because legally you are supposed to, but because of the “annoying noise” that is triggered from not having it on. Driving with loud music can be fun to listen to, however it is dangerous. Not being able to hear the ambulance or police officers trying to get by, or even another driver trying to alert you of something by beeping their horn is dangerous overall. Thankfully, I have never been in a car accident. However, I have seen some in person and many on social media. It leaves an everlasting effect of trauma on individuals and can typically be avoided with responsible drivers.

To be a better and safer driver, I can maintain the practices of safe driving. I will continue to use my blinkers when I merge lanes, I will continue to have limited phone usage and I will continue to be aware of my driving habits. This means checking blind spots, wearing a seat belt, and being aware of everyone’s safety; this includes my passengers, pedestrians and myself. I could improve on being more courteous when I am driving. Recently, there has been more construction work taking place on the local roads in my community. More lanes are closed off and this leads to chaos as everyone is trying to merge over into one lane. Being more courteous on the road is a safer approach to driving, leads to less road rage from other drivers, and leaves a smaller chance for accidents.

I can help others be safer on the road by being a good passenger. Instead of the driver feeling the need to change the music themselves, or text someone back I can do it for them. This lets the driver focus on driving and not on what’s going on around them. Some of my friends are not on the road yet, so in preparation I can help them by ensuring they do the right things when they do start driving. Most importantly, I can help others who are driving by being a safer driver myself. There is always room for improvement, so by continuing to improve on my driving skills I am contributing to reducing the amount of car accidents, deaths due to reckless driving endangerment and road rage incidents.