Everyone is a potential killer these days. Today, you and countless others played around with one of the most dangerous weapons in the country.
It is a weapon that kills around forty thousand people a year.
It is responsible for the leading cause of death among people between the ages of six and 27. And more than likely, you didn't even think twice about using it.
What is it? Your car.
According to www.disastercenter.com, more people between the ages of 15 and 24 died from car accidents in 1996 than from AIDS, heart disease, and homicide combined.
I can't speak for anyone else, but to me that is just unacceptable.
What saddens me even more is that many of these deaths may not have had to happen.
In 1999, approximately 15,000 automobile accident deaths were alcohol-related. And 63% of all passengers killed were not wearing their seatbelts.
How many people have to die before we realize that we have a problem that should be addressed?
Driving is something that people need to do. Everyone has some place they need to be, and the horse and buggy just isn't doing it for anyone but the Amish anymore.
And so our country, and in particular Arizona, needs to come up with some sort of plan to make driving safe.
But before we all start screaming at legislators to force us to be safe, maybe we should sit back and reflect on what ultimately becomes a personal issue.
Many accidents are the result of a person's personal choice.
You might be saying, "Yeah, right, I chose to get hit by that semi."
Well, it may be so that people don't choose to get into accidents, but ultimately people choose courses of action that result in accidents. Any time you leave ten minutes late for work, pick up that ringing cell-phone while you are driving or go to a drive-through restaurant, your potential to have an accident becomes much higher.
Think about it.
A person who leaves ten minutes late for work is going to drive faster just so he or she can get there on time. Maybe he or she will throw in a few erratic lane changes here and there as well.
I've seen people try and make U-turns with one hand on the wheel and one hand on their cell phones. Let's just say it's not the safest maneuver in the world, though it certainly garners points for degree of difficulty.
And who can't resist a taste of a Big Mac while cruising down the highway at 70 mph next to people who are late for work and talking on their cell phones?
You can get into the far more deadly acts with people who decide to have a little drink before they hit the open road, but to me the act of drinking and driving is so stupid that I don't even want to fathom it.
The bottom line is people ultimately choose courses of action that inevitably lead to accidents. And depending on the circumstances, many of those accidents lead to deaths.
We can yell at our legislators until we are blue in the face and tell them to pass laws that will make the roads safer, but in reality the only thing that is going to make the roads safer is if people themselves take the initiative to be better drivers.
A car is not a restaurant. It is not a telephone booth. It's not meant to be saving grace for people who forget to set their alarms.
At best, it gets rid of the unpleasant inconvenience of having to walk everywhere. At worst, it is the bearer of great tragedies.
So the next time you get behind the wheel of one of the most dangerous weapons in the entire country, you may want to stop and actually think about what it is you are doing. By driving carefully, you have the ability to protect your own life.
Hopefully, you will avoid becoming the killer I know you don't want to be.
Jonathan Winkler is a mathematics sophomore. Reach him at jonathan.winkler@asu.edu.
