Drive Smarter Not Faster

I used to fear driving for the first two months of drivers ed. My
teacher showed us an HBO documentary of the effects of driving under
the influence. The documentary detailed graphic injuries or broken
limps and fractured skulls as a result of being a victim in a car
crash. Those involved in serious car crashes had to relearn functions
of walking and talking and eating -just because of one stupid mistake
they did behind the wheel. Although it freaked me out, I thank my
teacher for showing this documentary because it shows the harmful
repercussions of not practicing safe driving. I feel like stuff like
this should always be shown to new drivers so that they will do
everything in their power to not become one of those victims. People
driving under the influence have delayed reaction times which can put
many people around them in danger, so by eliminating drivers under
the influence, the roads will be a lot safer.

My first couple
of times driving by myself were the scariest. It was much different
than driving with my mom, and her telling me to turn here, or stop
there, or switch to this lane. I will even admit that I only
completed 15 hours of driving experience, having faked the other 35
hours on my time log, to get my license. Although I am a much better
driver now, it was a hard adjustment at the beginning.

My very first
time that my mom let me use the car was when I wanted to go to the
movies with my friends. I was nervous because it was 10:30 at night
and I had never driven at night before. Luckily for me, there was no
traffic and I made it on the main road with ease. As I was nearing
the corner of North Avenue and Euclid, I got ready to switch over to
the right lane to be able to turn. I was sure I checked my rear and
side view mirrors, and there were no cars in sight. As I began to
switch lanes, suddenly, I hear a car horn blaring and a white car
swerving around the right side of my car, barely evading a collision.
The car kept driving like everything was okay, but I was shaking. If
I hadn’t stomped on the brake as fast as I did, one millisecond
later I would’ve been rear-ended. This near accident to this day
affects the way I drive now.

I am a slow
driver. Even on the express-way I never exceed 50 miles per hour. I
see a lot of car crashes on the news are a result of the driver
exceeding a speed that they cannot control. When I switch lanes, on
any road, despite checking my rear and side view mirrors, I turn
around to check my blind spot to make sure another car is not
directly behind me in the next lane.