Car Accidents †Problem and Solution Essay

The world would be a much better place if there were fewer car accidents. Car accidents happen daily and regularly these days. They leave pains behind for the victims’ families. Many people think that they will never get involved in car accidents. They don’t wear their seat belts, they drive after drinking, and they use their cell phones while driving. They do all these things without even giving a second thought, yet all these things are preventable. No one knows what will happen to them in the future except for God; thus, they should always stay alarmed. People don’t realize that doing those minor things cause them severe pains or even deaths. There are more than six million car accidents each year in the United States. A person dies in a car accident every twelve minutes and each year car crashes kill 40,000 people. Someone is injured by a car accident every fourteen seconds and about two million of the people who are injured in car accidents suffer permanent injuries. Car accidents are the leading cause of death for the people between two and thirty-four years old. Car crashes cost each American more than $1,000 a year; $164. 2 billion is the total cost each year across the U.S. (http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/statistics.html). As you can see, preserving car accidents not only saves the lives of the people, but also saves the money for their countries. This makes everyone to be involved in car accidents happen in their countries. So what causes the problem? There are many different reasons why car accidents happen. Some people are distracted while driving. They are on the phone, sending text messages, fixing their make-ups, and most of the drivers are distracted because of rubbernecking. They set their eyes on something else and run into walls, other cars, or posts. Another major reason is drinking. People do not know how dangerous it is to drive drunk; furthermore, they don’t even know they had been drinking because they drank too much. The fatigue of driving for many hours causes many accidents too. Drivers get tired and fall asleep without even noticing it. The speeding is also one of the reasons for accidents. Even though there are speed limits for different places, people don’t keep them. Teens race on highways with motorbikes or cars. Adults get drunk and drive as fast as rockets. Some people face accidents because of others. Other people may ignore the laws of traffic and run into you. You may not deserve it, but accidents happen at any time. It is your responsibility to always stay awake and be alarmed. There is no simple or specific solution to the problem of car accidents. All of us just need to keep the basic rules and laws. People need to be aware of accidents at anytime and anywhere. Individuals cannot solve this problem. We all have to work on it as one nation to solve it. Only one or two people keeping the warnings in their mind won’t help that much to prevent the accidents. Everyone should obey and follow the rules. That’s why there are rules, to keep them. However, people think lightly about the traffic laws. They just think driving as their daily routine. This mistaken thought would lead not only them but other people to death. To be stricter so people would follow the laws, I think we should raise the fines for not keeping the laws. For example, people who cross the mid lines, people who pass the red lights, people who litter out the window, and etc. They all should pay the fines with conscience. I saw Malaysian people ignoring the warning stickers on their cars and throwing them on the floor. They think that bribing the police officer would do the magic trick. There are some police officers’ faults too, but it is wrong for us to bribe at the first place. We should take responsibilities for what we’ve done and pay them. Another basic solution we could do is to not drive after drinking. People who get drunk should take a taxi or ask one of their friends to drive them home. We should place the police officers more often on the roads at night, so people would not drive after drinking. Another thing we can do is to put more cameras on the road to take more pictures of those who speed up over the limit. We can put warning signs of cameras to help the people stay alarmed. Then the teens would not race anymore, and the adults would not drive fast for any reason. All the drivers should have a rest every two hours. People should ride on the trains, ships or airplanes for long trips. Drivers should get enough sleep or rest before they drive. They should not go for long journey after heavy loads of work. All of these can prevent the fatigue of driving for many hours. We should teach about car accidents, and about its consequences more often in school. So we can show the students how dangerous car accidents can be. I know people don’t wish to get involved in car accidents, but people don’t take it seriously until they actually get involved. The problem would not be solved until the drivers take actions and people take the warnings seriously. Fines and policing would not solve everything because people would only slow down in front of the cameras, and police officers. They would speed up again when no one is watching. If this continues like this, no one can solve it. The solution lies within our conscience and honesty.