Forgotten

Sitting
in an automobile’s driver’s seat really makes a person think.
Literally right under his or her humble bottom is a machine capable
of using controlled explosions to accelerate several tons of metal to
speeds people a mere century ago could barely even dream of
achieving! And the only things controlling that power? Their toes.
It’s terrifying. Just by sitting in that seat, an unsuspecting
teenager will be suddenly elevated beyond anything they could expect.
The responsibility that such power requires is immense. Taking on
that much potential ability and risk without proper training or
education would be foolish to say the least. It is imperative that
any and all drivers are fully aware of the rules and regulations
surrounding the act of driving, or else that incredible power can
only become a deadly and destructive weapon. When I went through my
own drivers ed class, I was surprised, and not merely
because I was discovering just how much I actually didn’t know
about the driving laws of my state. I was more surprised when I
started to realize that the adults around me, the ones I had relied
on to help move from place to place, didn’t know as much as I had
thought. Certainly, they drove well, never broke any laws, and were
very responsible drivers, but many of the finer details of the laws
had apparently fallen through. Knowing who on the street has right of
way had been boiled down to a “sense.” When to merge lanes and
the general procedure for doing so had been reduced to an automatic
action they apparently didn’t even think about consciously. And
while I was never afraid of getting into my parents’ cars, it
certainly did put things into stark perspective. If even my parents,
both of whom are quite fastidious and precise, could start to lose
track of driving procedures, then what about the less meticulous
people of the world? Who knows how much they retain of their driving
classes? Who knows how many accidents involving experienced drivers
are caused simply because it had been too long since they first
learned all of the information? In the end, making sure everyone has
the knowledge throughout their entire lives, and not just when they
are sixteen, is absolutely vital. Regular checks of this knowledge
would go a long way toward ending such careless driving. If some type
of test of driving theory were to be administered every few years,
then the benefit it would have on everyone cannot be understated.
Perhaps it is high time for some of the people out there to dig out
their old driver’s manuals and review some of those rules. Perhaps
it is high time for I myself to brush up!