One of the reasons many people prefer to drive than ride as a passenger is the feeling of control. If you have ever been saddled with a backseat driver you will know how much some people hate to lose that control.
You do have more control when you take the wheel of a vehicle than when you ride as a passenger. Yet, you do not have as much control over your safety as you might like to think.
Driving as well as you can is literally a life-enhancing skill. If you drive with reckless abandon, you will not last long out on the roads. However, you are only part of the equation.
Another driver could kill or injure you in a second
If everyone drove as well as possible, fewer accidents would occur. Yet many drivers fail to meet the safe driving standards they should. Even if they generally do meet those standards, most people have occasional lapses in which, if the circumstances align, they could cause a crash.
This is why you need to drive defensively
Driving in a manner so that you do not cause a crash yourself is basic. What you should also focus on is driving defensively. If you do not know how to do it, there are plenty of courses and online information available. In effect, you drive with the assumption that any other person out there could do something stupid at any point that could put you at risk of a crash.
If another driver causes a crash and injures you, you can get legal help to seek compensation. Yet if you take the time to learn how to drive defensively, you might be able to avoid that crash altogether.