The Easy Way Isn’t Always the Best Way

Having
the ability to drive a car can be seen as something to provide
freedom and independence. This is especially enticing to teens who
desire the ability to go out without having to ask mom or dad. While
driving can be seen as a dream for many, it can also easily take an
innocent life away. This is why educating new drivers is so
important. Being informed on how to responsibly operate a vehicle and
the rules of the road that follow are essential to ensuring that new
drivers are fully prepared to safely get behind the wheel without
putting anybody’s life in danger.

Being
a responsible driver does not just end after drivers ed,
though. The best way to prevent the driver’s death and others is to
alway be cautious when driving and never take the easy way out. So
many accidents are due to the fact that someone wants to take the
easy route. Whether it be by not wearing your seatbelt because you
are running late to work to convincing yourself that you are not
drunk so that you can drive instead of paying for an Uber. These
small choices that people make without proper thought can lead to
disastrous life-long guilt or even death. Being able to think about
the lives that you are responsible for when you turn on the engine
will prevent those life-altering consequences.

Thankfully,
I have never been in a car accident; however, in 2001 my heavily
pregnant mother was hit by a driver after he ran a red light through
an intersection. As luck would have it, he collided with the right
side of her door, but if it would have been a different circumstance,
his recklessness and lack of thought for others would have cost my
mother’s life and I would have never been born.

A
large-scale driving issue that needs to be addressed is driving under
the influence or while distracted. So many people nowadays do not see
this as a serious problem. They think, “I’m a great driver sober,
so a few shots will not matter” or “Oh, I just need to text this
person back. I will only look away for a second”. Drivers need to
be aware that these nonchalant excuses may not be a big deal to them
but they could mean a difference between life and death for someone
else. The biggest rule to remember while driving is that you can
never bring a life back but you can always do more to prevent
someone’s life from being taken away.