General purpose: To persuade the audience to help curb the menace of careless driving.
Specific Purpose of the speech: I want to convince my audience to stop the constant road carnage that happens every day by observing the road rules and regulations set for them. They should stop using cell phones while driving which one of the major cause of the road accidents, this is because it is highly irresponsible and dangerous for one to drive while using the cell phones.
Introduction
- Attention gaining device: it is possible that many of us here know of one or two people who might have been involved in tragic major road accident maybe which has been caused by reckless driving or any other ways. Personally. I do have a cousin got involved in serious road accident. Interestingly, we are of the same age. It happened last summer. According to the sources, mostly what he told us, he was little bit late for the soccer game and he felt like driving faster without looking at the available road symbols and signs would help him. To my surprise and disbelief, the contrary happened. He was driving so fast and like a crazy person and was going so fast between the cars. Little did he know the great danger lying ahead of him, a huge truck was there ahead of him. My cousin got crashed and luckily, he did not die but he is now a disable person in our family relying heavily on the support of the family. He was considered as the source of income for the family since he was the firstborn, but that dream of the family members was shuttered by the tragic road accident which almost claimed his life. By now my cousin can walk no more. I will play for you a YouTube video for my cousin’s case so that we can all see the exact thing that happened.
- Relate to the audience: most of us here we know one or two people who have been involved in a road accident. Most importantly, we know of one or two of our friends who normally drives so crazily that when either of you is in the same car would just be praying for the safe arrival at their final destination. Personally, i do not have such friends but I have seen a number of them driving so crazily like that and end up losing their lives or getting fractures and finally becoming disabled persons in the society. We should avoid this!
- Credibility: it is believed that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of deaths of most of the teenagers in the current world, especially in America according to the analysis as found in www.dsf-usa.com of our study. Many of them end up cutting their lives very short because of careless driving.
- Thesis: many of the people today start driving cars recklessly without taking into account the dangers they are likely to face which may even lead to the loss of their own lives.
- Preview: for that reason, I would like to talk about the problems associated with driving carelessly, reason why some of us opt to drive that way and finally will be able to look at the remedies on how to curb the menace of reckless driving on our roads.
Body
- Major problems associated with careless driving.
- Many of the road users ends up losing their lives or got disabled because of reckless driving without observing the road signs and symbols
- It is believed that more than seventy percent of the road accidents in the United States of America is due to reckless driving by the road users. This has claimed many lives including that of the driver and the passengers. Mostly it affects the youths.
- According to the statistical survey carried out in 2009, it was found that 5,474 people lost their lives due to reckless driving in U.S and another additional number of 448,000 people got injured on the road when vehicles got crashed. This has greatly affected the economy of the nation drastically.
- Violation of street rules and waste of money.
- One way of violating the rules and orders of the street is when drives faster and more recklessly and may lead to some consequences when one is caught by the police officers on duty. This may lead to him or her being fined to a tune of two hundred dollars for such an offence of reckless driving of failing to observe the rules of the street. One of my friends happened to be a victim of such a fine; he passed the red light and did not know whether that was to cost him three hundred and forty dollars.
- More importantly, on the side of the accident occurrence, one will be forced to use a lot of money for the reason of driving carelessly. He will be forced to fix his or her car as well as the person’s car. Despite the situation of one having his property insured by a big insurance company, he will have bear the brunt of paying back once he or she renews the contract with them in case they helped in paying for the damages.
Transition: given that I have talked of the reasons that associates with the reckless driving, it would be my pleasure discussing with you some aspects that may lead to the solving such problems.
- Age bracket: the minimum age for issuing the driving the driving licenses should be above eighteen years old. According to drivetostayaliveinc.com, sixteen years old have a crash rate three times more than seventeen years old, five times greater than eighteen years old, and two times greater than eighty five years old. And parents should ensure that young drivers to drive safely and properly while on the road.
- Public awareness to the road users: it is advisable that every individual to have value for his or her own life and take much caution while driving. Besides that they should also have some value for other street users. Even if they arrive a bit late, something like five to ten minutes is not bad as compared to loosing live or become a disabled person in the society. As the saying goes; Better late than never!
Also, if one has the need for over speeding or going at a higher speed, he or she can use some other avenues that recognize such levels of the speed and he could stand a chance of winning. There are many places, where anyone can race or drive fast, and can earn him or her some recognition.
Conclusion
- In conclusion, I have explained to you about the major problems associated with reckless driving and the solution to curb the menace.
- We now all know the problems that come from driving cars recklessly, why many people are associated with this behavior, and gave you a couple of the solutions that would definitely help you to overcome this problem if do experience it.
- Life is not a toy to dispose it that easily. Whenever you drive recklessly, try to think of all the lives you are risking, and is it worth the danger you are putting them in? Everyone should value his or her live including for those around him or her. I would wish to conclude by saying that better late than never.
Reference
Bradley, Russ. "Clemson Becomes First City to Ban Texting While Driving in State." Count on News [Charleston, SC] 16 Feb. 2010: 1-2. Print.
Copeland, Larry. "Word to Youth: Texting, Driving Don't Mix." USA TODAY 08 Mar. 2010: 1-2. Print.
Drews, Frank. "Drivers on Cell Phones Are as Bad as Drunks." U News Center [University of Utah] 29 June 2006: 1-2. Print.
Naik, Abhijit. "Texting While Driving Statistics." Buzzle 15 July 2010: 1-2. Print.
"SC Department of Highway Safety." YouTube. 15 June 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl2xhfVUu0Y&feature=related>.
Smith, Bailey. "Texting While Driving." Texting While Driving. 11 Aug. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. <texting-while-driving.org>.
Strayer, David. "Oprah." Distracted Driving: What You Don't See. WYFF, Chicago,
Illinios, 15 Jan. 2010. Television.
