Bad Driving Habits

Geoffrey Rio

If you’re a speeder, that means you’re a tailgater. And if you’re a tailgater, that makes you a liability and risk to everyone’s safety. Speed limitations were not meant to be broken, and this should play in to common sense. Unfortunately, common sense is not very common. Speed limit signs are placed up and down public roads as a reminder to slow down. However, it’s very easy to go one, two, or even five miles per hour over the speed limit. But that is no reason to put someone else’s life in jeopardy. According to Earl M. Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner of New Hampshire Department of Safety Fatalities “speeding is a contributing factor in about 31% percent of all fatal crashes.” Which in lives, is a lot. Speeding is responsible for nearly 14,000 lives lost per year. No, not in the world, the United States alone. Unacceptable. Assuming that all 14,000 lives lost were those who had no control over their fatal outcomes would mean 14,000 careless drivers just needed to simply go the speed limit. When you are given a license, you are trusted with a privilege, a privilege that if abused could result in the end of yours or someone else’s life, if not both. To be on either end, is a terrible thing. Do not drive carelessly, speeding is an excuse for your lack of planning. It is better show up late, then to not show up at all. Say NO to speeding, and say YES to living. Geoffrey Rio

How often have you been driving and has some one make a complete stop in front of you just to turn? Or had the car next to you come up fast on the highway and cut in front of you? Now that you know the answer, ask yourself how many of them had their turn signal on? Not many right? It seems so easy to forget about that quick motion to turn on your signal. You may even think that using your turn signal is a waste of time. What you don’t realize is that not doing so is quite dangerous. According to a study done by The Society of Automotive Engineers in 2012, the failure to use the turn signal “causes nearly 2-million accidents a year. More than twice the number of accidents that are caused by distracted driving.” That’s a lot of accidents for something that so many people don’t think about. Is a quick movement of your hand on that turn signal worth the risk of becoming on of those millions of accidents? Use your turn signal and don’t become one of the millions. Amanda Anson

Drivers don't think how their actions can affect others. While driving I see people putting on make up, texting on cell phones and eating while driving. Eating and drinking is an activity I see relatively often and a study done by the national highway traffic safety administration showed that eating while driving increases the risk of an accident by 80 percent and also cause 65 percent of the near miss accidents on the road. They concluded the top distracting food items are coffee, hot soups and tacos. So you can wait, eating while driving is dangerous and not worth the risk. Jason Montierth

Texting and Driving! 5 Seconds is the minimal amount taken away to text or reading a text Million car crashes resulted from using a cellphone. 330,000 occurred from text messaging. 1:4 accidents are caused by texting and driving texting and driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than driving while intoxicated. states (including Washington D.C.) prohibit texting and driving times more likely to be in an accident when texting and driving. Texting and driving is now the leading cause of deaths among teenagers. R. Montoya 3,328 killed 421,000 injured = distracted driving

Take the pledge! R. Montoya