Name: Madison Price
From: Appleton, WI
Votes: 0
Driver’s
Safety Cannot Be Taken Lightly
About
a month ago, one of my classmates died in a car accident on the
highway that I and many others have to drive through to get to school
every morning. You never imagine it will happen to you or a loved one
and when it does, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. It made me realize
that driver’s safety is not something to be taken lightly because
when you’re behind the wheel, you’re not just in charge of your
life but you’re also in charge of the lives of others driving
around you.
Before
my experience with someone dying because of a car accident, I didn’t
think anything of driver safety. I felt I drove safe enough and
everyone around me was driving safe enough too. But once Collin died
that Monday night, everything changed. At first, I didn’t want to
drive again. If I didn’t drive, I couldn’t hurt anyone else and
no one else could hurt me. But then I realized, it is not about me.
It’s about the 1.25 million people who die each year because they
get too comfortable on the roads. I believe as a nation we need to
raise the driving age to eighteen. In doing this, the teenagers will
have more time to learn the importance of driver’s safety and spend
more time driving with their parents and being in driver’s
education. I don’t think teenagers truly understand the importance
of driving safely and America needs to inform and teach them the
importance. I feel like today, teenagers don’t realize its
importance until they get into an accident themselves or a friend or
family member gets into an accident. America needs to teach them the
importance of safety before they go through a devastation.
Today,
driving means something completely different than it did a month and
a half ago. It doesn’t just mean freedom to go and do whatever I
want. It’s a privilege to be able to drive and with that privilege
comes responsibility, and that’s where driving safety comes in. To
ensure people are driving safely on our roads I, as well as my
community, am taking action to encourage others to respect the speed
limit and slow down. Highway 15 is the highway that took Collin’s
life, as well as many others. My community has made a petition to not
only change the speed limit, but to also put in a roundabout at the
intersection where Collin passed away.
Driving
safety has become a huge part of my life and because of this, I
believed this scholarship would be perfect for sharing why it’s
important to me and how America can help lower the death rate. Next
time you read about a fatal car accident on the news, don’t ignore it
because next time it could be one of your classmates, your best
friend, or even a family member. Don’t ever believe it couldn’t
happen to you or a loved one because it most definitely can.
