Name: nastassia samadzelkava
From: Keansburg, NJ
Votes: 0
Shifting
perspective on the driving safety.
As
was illustrated on the www.dmvedu.org
the highways fatalities are over the top. The rate has gone down, but
not significantly.
Since
my college major is psychology I would like to evaluate and analyse
the situation from the psychological point of view and propose
possible solutions of this problem.
While
driving laws and regulations provide significant amount of order and
safety on the roads, I believe, the situation can be improved. What
is the intent of having a law? To enforce a desirable behaviour in
order to provide safe (and hopefully) productive environment for the
population. Why is it necessary? Unfortunately (regarding the topic
of this essay), it is obvious that there are irresponsible people,
who underestimate the dangers of operation a several-ton weighted
machine. But, since law enforcement can only get us this far and is
not eliminating the problem completely, there might be additional
ways to improve this situation.
Generally,
car accidents happen, because people are not relating to the possible
danger. It’s kind of a “bad things happen, but not to me, because
I’m too smart/quick/special” attitude. A person, who experienced
the car accident first hand or had a friend/relative go through this
horrible experience is much likely to be more careful behind the
wheel or think twice before getting into the driver’s seat while
intoxicated.
My
proposal would be, as follows, to make the danger more personal,
instead of something completely abstract and unlikely to happen. To
be more concrete the mandatory videos can be made at the DMV
locations and each time one goes to renew the driving license, pass a
test (or some other mandatory procedure) they would be obligated to
watch the video. The video should contain the real stories of people
who have suffered through car accidents (including thought process
before the accident and the change of perspective after, or, for
example “a letter to the past you” format). There also can be a
set of different videos in order to make them more relatable – an
office worker would watch a video with a similar looking man/female,
a mother would watch the video of another mother, a teenager – of a
kid from the similar age group. I would say this is somewhat
important, because the main goal is to give people the opportunity to
step in somebody-else’s shoes, and the more relatable it is – the
better.
I
understand, this process can be tedious, but it might be simplified
by only showing videos to people that have a certain amount of points
on their license. There is no need to for a person, who is very
careful of the road to spend their time watching a video like this.
To
sum it up: we have to evoke deep understanding, instead of the fear
of punishment. And the best way to understand is to have an emotional
response.
To
answer the question about the steps I personally take to keep safe on
the road: I always try to stay mindful. I understand this answer
might seem very general, but it would take another essay to explain
it step by step.
N.
Samadzelkava
