Name: Quinn Michael Treber
From: Indianapolis, Indiana
Votes: 0
Safety
in Driving and Aviation
Driver
education is the foundation upon which all driving experience and
skill is built. The act of driving is a time for drivers to apply
their knowledge, not to learn it for the first time. Most people are
able to drive in rural areas and parking lots with relative ease once
they have become accustomed to the controls of their vehicle, but a
stressful situation will require the driver to make immediate
decisions. Having a solid foundation of knowledge during a stressful
moment behind the wheel could determine whether or not the driver is
able to realize the best course of action before it’s too late. For
instance, an uneducated driver might not think to put on their
headlights in the rain, and they would have trouble with their vision
as a result. Vision is vital to safe driving, and so this theoretical
driver would be unsafe as a result of their weak educational
foundation.
Even
a decision as seemingly insignificant as whether or not to use
headlights in the rain could cause a ripple effect that could lead to
a collision and even casualties. Preventing these ripple effects from
occurring could significantly decrease the number of driving-related
deaths, and that requires drivers to be educated. An educated driver
would be able to mitigate risks and come to quick decisions more
easily than an uneducated driver as a result of their solid
educational foundation. To reduce the number of deaths related to
driving, student drivers should focus just as much, if not more, of
their time studying traffic laws, road signs, right of way, and much
more, as they spend behind the wheel.
My
family’s car was hit head-on by a drunk driver when I was seven
years old. I don’t remember it well, although I do remember that I
felt confused and afraid as I sat on the grass nearby with my
siblings worrying about whether my parents were safe. My parents
ended up alright, although my mom had to be hospitalized for months
with severe injuries to her leg. I hadn’t realized it at the time,
but my sister had broken her pelvis and needed to be hospitalized as
well.
I
am currently a flight student at Purdue University, which entails
that I fly single engine aircraft with the goal of obtaining a
private pilot license. Although this does not involve driving a car,
it does involve a heavy emphasis on safety. I need to check the
aircraft before flight, and I have to taxi onto the runway carefully,
and only with permission from the control tower. The same methods of
practicing safety that I use in aviation can be applied to driving
cars as well. Aircraft at Purdue are required to be inspected before
each flight. Regularly looking over a car in a similar way could
enable a driver to identify issues such as low oil, gas, and air in
the tires before they become a debilitating problem during a drive.
