With all the talk recently concerning the dangers of distracted driving, I felt the need to add my own thoughts on safe driving. We all know the rules. Don’t drink and drive, don’t text and drive, don’t speed, obey the signs, watch for pedestrians, and so on. We all know the rules, so why do so many of us not follow them? Nearly everyone claims they do, but do they always?

 

I live on a busy highway, and more often than not on my way to wherever I’m going someone inevitably pulls out in front of me so that I have to brake, usually quickly, and often on icy and rainy roads. If those people would just count to three, I would pass by and they could safely pull out onto the highway, no braking required.

 

Please. Slow down and think.

One particular icy morning a car approaching the highway I was driving down came flying up to the stop sign and slid right through it, spinning out onto the side of the road. Luckily I had been driving under the speed limit due to the road conditions or the woman would have plowed right into me.

 

Please. Slow down and think.

 

Another morning, this one so foggy I could barely see the pavement in front of the car, I was on the same highway and coming up to the street I needed to turn onto, my four year old daughter in the backseat. Because there was a car behind me, I slowed down earlier than I normally would have to make sure they had time to notice what I was doing. A split second before I reached my turn, a truck approaching the highway completely blew through the stop sign and went air born like the General Lee on Dukes of Hazzard. If I hadn’t slowed down early I would have been directly in the path of that truck, and if it would have hit us air born at that high rate of speed I guarantee I wouldn’t be here today, and my daughter probably wouldn’t be either.

 

Please. Slow down and think. 

 

On the last day of school a few years ago I heard the school bus pull up in front of our house. Seconds later I heard the sound of a crash. Heart pounding, I ran to the door. My daughter was standing in the driveway, looking back at the bus she had just exited. A teenager had smashed into the back of it. The stretch of highway we live on is straight. The bus had its lights flashing and the stop arm out.

 

There was no way someone could have missed it unless they were distracted. Luckily for everyone involved no one was hurt.

 

Please. Slow down and think.

 

When my kids were younger I would wait for the bus with them in my car so I could head off to work once they had gotten on safely. To get on the bus in the mornings my kids have to cross the highway.

 

On two separate occasions cars sped right past the flashing lights and outstretched stop arm without even slowing down. Both times my kids had been about to start crossing the road. Both times I chased after the cars to try and get their license plate numbers, and both times the drivers raced towards town, running through red lights to escape me once they got there.

 

Please. Slow down and think.

I’m not saying all of this because I think I’m a better driver than everyone else. I’m not. Although I don’t text and drive, I’ve been known to eat while I’m driving, fumble around with the music, and drive faster than the posted speed limit. 

 

One day not too long ago, I was headed to a class I was teaching in a town nearly an hour away. I got going later than I’d planned, so I decided I needed to make up time. The GPS told me I would be arriving at my destination at 3:48. Not soon enough for me, so to catch up I drove close to ten miles an hour over the speed limit the entire way. When I arrived I looked down at the GPS and saw the time was 3:45. Three minutes. I’d sped for close to 50 minutes and had only shaved three measly minutes off my time. Why do we think it’s worth it?

 

Please. Slow down and think.

Most people think they’re good drivers. Many of them are. However everyone has times when they’re in a hurry, when they think they’re more important than the other people on the road, when they get distracted. We all need to make the decision to practice safe driving. Lives can change in a second. A good driver is one who gets to their destination safely without breaking any laws, and without endangering others on the way there.

 

Please. Slow down and think.