All over America there are drivers, pedestrians, bikers, and passengers. And all over the world these people are at risk on the road. Although car manufacturers have tried to make cars safer for when accidents happen and police officers have tried to make less accidents happen by implementing certain laws, there is still a lot of danger in driving"?just watch the evening news! In addition to the more than million individuals killed by car accidents every year, another thirty-eight million people are injured in traffic accidents every year, and out of those thirty eight million injuries, five million of them are very serious and usually critical injuries. My sister has been hit by a mini-van once as well as an SUV while riding her bike. Not only destroying her bicycle, but also breaking her foot the first time and the second time her leg was injured and her shoulder was badly scraped on the pavement. -Both times she paid for her own repairs, because she is too timid a person to demand that the driver at fault take the responsibility to help after having injured her and her only means of transportation. In the United states the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has a New Car Assessment Program, (the US-NCAP). However, this program uses very outdated methods for crash testing as well as the fact that it only features automobiles that were built after the year 1994. There is also testing done for the insurance industry, called the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). But, similarly these tests and evaluations only have data available for a few late-model vehicles. There exists a great amount of ignorance in many of the fifty states when it comes to pedestrian safety. Once I had an SUV almost the size of a hummer miss me by a matter of inches as I crossed the street. The old man in the virtual tank was waiting to make a left turn. I began to walk, because I had a walk signal (and that means that pedestrians can walk across the street"?and it also means that cars waiting to turn need to wait for the pedestrians to cross. The implication here is that one must LOOK before he or she turns his or her very popular new enormous vehicle (which promotes both the driver's and passenger's safety"?and are also able to squash any compact car on the road). In this situation, it was not like the old man did not see me at first and then saw me at the last second (woops). He did not see me at all. He passed me by completely oblivious. Literally had I taken one more step he would have knocked me to the ground and rolled over me with his four humungous tires. Do you see how this can be important, that is, say, if you do not want to murder someone or be killed yourself. Heck"?you could even be or encourage others to be a little more careful just for the sake of avoiding a simple injury. That is, unless you want to injure or be injured. I guess everyone has personal preferences (and may need to get some help). But seriously, in earnest, everyone should try to be more careful on the road. And my recommendation for pedestrians or bikers . . . I guess they just need to pretend that every car is out to kill them and every driver is blind, because obviously, at least in this state, following the traffic rules simply isn't enough. |
