Some people think that strict punishments for driving offences are the key to reducing traffic accidents. Others, however, believe that other measures would be more effective in improving road safety.

IELTS Writing Topics: Some people think that strict punishments for driving offences are the key to reducing traffic accidents. Others, however, believe that other measures would be more effective in improving road safety. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Some people believe that strict punishments will reduce traffic accidents, while others think that other methods like right way of education, correct road training and analyzing traffic accidents to improve the transportation system are better measures for reducing traffic accidents. In my opinion, effective measure will be better than direct punishments.

The reason why a part of the people think that punishments like fine, canceling licenses and putting drivers who broke serious rules into jails can reduce traffic accidents, is usually due to the fact that these punishments can warn the drivers to be careful during driving so that they won’t get punishes. In this way, the possibility of traffic accidents happening will decrease, because most drivers will be aware that they should not break the rules. But, the effect of this is very limited, since it can’t reduce the accidents which are caused by bad driving skills and the bugs in the transportation system itself. This made the impacts of the punishments  smaller than expected.

In my opinion, compared to those strict punishments, other measure like improving the education and road training for new drivers, or analyzing the records of previous traffic accidents then find problems in the entire traffic system and fix it will have a better effect. Firstly, improvement in the education and training methods can help the new drivers to gain driving skills and higher understanding on the traffic rules. Also, this will help the drivers to know what can be done and what should they do at the first place, which can decrease the possibility of drivers breaking the rules, or make mistakes that might cause accidents from the first place. Secondly, considering that some traffic accidents are caused by the problem of the transportation system itself. Finding and solving the “bugs in the system” would be a perfect way to reduce those accidents from happening again. For example, if there’s some problem on a road cross which later on lead to a car crash, punishing the drivers in the crush won’t prevent accidents happen on that crossing on another day. The best way is to find and fix the problems on the design of the crossing, due to that this method can stop similar accidents from happening again.

In conclusion, to stop traffic accidents from happening, governments should put more attention to improve the education and training system for drivers, or finding and solving problems on the traffic system instead of strict punishments for the drivers.