The Hazards of Unsafe Driving
...ving puts us all at risk. For all those that follow the rules and drive safely, the people who drive aggressively still put them at risk. There are many ways to drive safely. To drive safely, there are many things you must take into account. One thing you can do is drive the speed limit. It is a huge risk to drive at high speeds. If you get caught you not only get in trouble with points on your record, your insurance goes up, you can get grounded, your car might get taken away, your parents yell at you, but you also have tremendous fines for something that is easily preventable. Another way to become a less hazardous driver is to be a courteous driver. This includes letting people merge in at appropriate times. It is not safe to be tailgating the car in front of you because if that person has to suddenly stop you will rear end him and that can cause serious damage. And tail gating a person isn't going to make him or her drive faster so it is pointless. I’ve actually seen many people start driving slower when someone is tailgating them. And if an accident happens because you were being a careless driver, it’s not worth the damage to your car, the punishment by your parents, fines, or court time. Another thing I see a lot of is people driving way too fast around construction zones. When driving in construction zones you should be very cautious and drive slower. You must be very observant about things occurring around you. Always pay attention to what the construction workers want you to do, and always obey them. Pay attention to the signs, barrels, and lights that guide you to what you need to do. There are many incidents where construction workers have been hit due to hazardous driving. That number could decrease if people would pay more attention to there driving instead of talking on the phone or eating while they're driving. Traffic fines double in construction zones, and that in itself should be an incentive to drive cautiously and abide by the laws. For young drivers especially, any fine is too much, not to mention if it doubles. Another important thing in driving safely is to make sure that your car is in the best shape possible, and that it is safe to drive. You have to make sure that all of the fluids are full and clean, and it is very unsafe to have objects hanging off of your car. Those objects can easily fall onto the road and be a hazard to the safety of other drivers. You always want to make sure all of your lights and turn signals work at all times. Never tie large amounts of objects on top of your car either because it can be easy for those objects to get caught in the wind and fly off of the top of your car if not tied down well. If something is wrong with your car you should fix it as soon as possible. You want to rotate your tires and have your breaks checked regularly. This is the most important thing when it comes to driving. Another example of being a safe driver is using your turn signal in appropriate circumstances. That includes when you are switching lanes, or making a right or left-hand turn. It is important to use your turn signal to indicate to other drivers what you are going to do next. Not using your turn signal can cause potential accidents and you may be ticketed for a failure to use it. Not only is it appropriate to use it, this is also courteous to drivers around you. If you are failing to use turn signals, drivers may get mixed signs and there could be accidents as a result. If you don’t use the turn signal to turn someone might rear-end you. If you don’t use it to change lanes you and someone else might be switching to the same lane so you could have a collision. Its a courtesy, its a law, and it is a way to prevent a driving hazard. It is very important to be a cautious driver for your own personal safety and so you don’t put other drivers around you in danger. It isn't that hard to drive safely if you just give yourself enough time not to be late. It’s not worth it to speed and drive unsafely if you're already late. If you’re late, you are going to be late regardless of how fast you drive. You will be a lot later and possibly won’t arrive in one piece if you cause an accident. All these are very important topics and hazardous forms of driving. But there is one that I have not mentioned. It takes many lives every year. The lives it takes aren’t always the person doing the hazardous driving. This hazardous driving is known as drunk driving. Drunk driving is one of the stupidest things that a person could possibly do. Why try to drive a car when you cannot walk? There are so many consequences as a result of drunk driving weather it is from the aspect of the law, parents, or your pocket. First of all, you’ll get in big trouble with the law. You should, too. Driving drunk is an extremely selfish decision. Driving drunk is an (OUIL) also known as a (DUI). These result in many consequences. You lose your license, have to pay for a lawyer, pay the ticket, pay court costs, go to jail, and the points will stay on your record for around four years. That is just from the legal end. Your parents, the community, and your pocket will be quite upset with you, also. When you drive drunk and get an OUIL your problems have started. You go to jail and automatically lose your license. Why would you ever put yourself in this predicament? To “just get home”, I do not think this is a good enough reason for anyone to drive drunk. In fact, NO reason is a good enough one to drive drunk. There is always someone you can call to come pick you up, or just sleep it off. If you are going to risk your license being taken away for at least a year to “just get home”, you should not even have a license. The loss of your license is by no means the end of your punishment or the worst part. The rest of the law part is still to come. You may have just gotten caught driving drunk. Or you may have gotten caught in a way no one likes to see. Or you may have gotten in an accident with innocent persons. If you get just pulled over and were just driving under the influence that is much better for everyone. You did not hit an innocent motorist or hurt anyone. You still lose your license. You also have to go to court. They will decide the rest of your sentence. Even though no one was hurt, you were risking your own life, as well as the lives of anyone else on the road with you. The worst possible scenario is that you could hit and maybe even kill someone in a car accident where you had been drinking. This is where you will get what you deserve. You lose your license automatically. If that is not bad enough, you will have to pay for the ticket. On top of that, you’ll go to court. For the court, you’ll have to pay the fines. In order to go to court, you’ll need a lawyer. Lawyers are very expensive. Once you have your lawyer and the ticket is paid for, you’ll go before the judge. You’ll receive murder for killing the other motorist. Then the family of the victim files a lawsuit against you. You’ll have to pay them millions. If that isn’t bad enough, you will be in jail for the prime of your life. Your friends will be in college while you rot in jail. Not to mention, the memory of the accident and the lives you have ruined will be on your conscience for the rest of your life. If you kill someone in an accident, or just get caught drunk driving, you are going to regret it. You will be looked down upon by the whole community. If you were to try to get a job anywhere, for the most part, they won’t hire you with this on your record. Who wants a selfish drunk that thought of himself getting home first before the lives they could have taken? Not too many employers will want to hire a selfish person who doesn’t care about the people around them. You also better get a job close to home, because without a license you’re not going to get very far. So why drink and drive? Just get a designated driver. If the loss of license and all of the other things involved does not get through to you I’m sure it does get through when its time for your wal...