Name: Megan Walsh
From: McHenry, Illinois
Votes: 0
“I’m
sorry ma’am, your son was killed in an accident earlier tonight,”
is news that no one should receive. This news will stop your heart in
a moment of shock and you will feel emotionless while you process
that your baby boy was killed because of a vehicle collision. Too
many lives are taken away because of accidents each year, 34,000 to
be exact. Whether these deaths are drunk driving, sleeping behind the
wheel, or an animal jumping out in front of the car, this issue needs
to be taken seriously.
Driver
education can reduce fatalities behind the wheel by 24% according to
studies by the University of Nebraska. In order to reduce fatalities,
drivers ed needs to be promoted across the country. Whether it
be a class on one day a week or a semester long course that’s
mandatory to graduate, this is what needs to be done.
Thankfully,
I have not been directly involved in a crash but my family and
community has been affected. My family on January 29, 1996 was
tragically affected when my Uncle Danny was killed in a car crash on
Superbowl Sunday. He was not intoxicated; speculation is that he got
distracted by his radio on a dangerous, curvy road in our hometown.
My
community will never be the same after this year as two students from
my school were killed, one because of another driver being reckless
and crashing head on into the car they were driving, the fault was
not their own but a recent graduate of our towns. The other because
of reckless behavior and the feeling of nothing bad could happen to
them.
We
need to educate others about how dangerous driving truly is; it seems
that a lot of people do not realize that it can happen to anyone. I
personally am a very cautious driver and encourage my friends to be
cautious drivers. At my school, we have weeks where we promote safe
driving, I always volunteer to portray a victim where I am not
allowed to talk to anyone all day so people understand what it’s
like when someone isn’t there anymore. This is not impossible,
education can help change the statistics and limit the number of
deaths behind the wheel.
