Driver Education Initiative – In the Passenger Seat

I
remember more than most when I got into my first accident. I remember
the alarm sound that rang in my ears. I remember the feeling of glass
across my chest. I remember the warm feeling of the blood on my skin,
a mixture of both my mother and I’s. I remember steering the car
out of danger because it was still rolling in drive. All of this
happened when I was in the passenger seat.

My
mom came from a country town where she had driven four wheelers and
go-carts around a lot. She never really had a formal driver
education. She was used to driving and looking at crops or looking
for things to do; she never really learned to pay attention to the
road and her surroundings. This is how this accident happened; she
was looking at me when the person in front of her was braking and
just smashed into the back of the car in front of us. In this case,
no one was killed, but in a lot of cases like this, a fatality
occurs. We were lucky. Neither of us wore a seatbelt and both of us
made it out without many scrapes. If my mom would have learned to pay
attention, however, maybe luck wouldn’t have had anything to do and
driving skill would have avoided this all together. Maybe if others
in this situation, who didn’t end up lucky, would have gotten
drivers ed, they would have avoided it all together.

One
of the biggest steps we could have taken to reduce the chance of us
dying… putting on a seatbelt. My mom was lenient about it and I
would see her without one, so I just didn’t wear one at the time.
If either of us would have died that night then it would have been
all because of a lack of a simple ‘click’. This happens to a lot
of people because they don’t take the two seconds to put it on and
then they end up in a hospital or a morgue. This, combined with more
distractions are causing more accidents. Whether it be a kid
distracting their mom, or a cell-phone, or a road sign. If we could
reduce distractions and just pay attention to the road, so many
accidents would be prevented.

I
have started to wear my seatbelt every time I go out. I am afraid to
go without it, as I (and everyone else) should be. I don’t let a
single passenger ride in my car without a seatbelt and don’t move
the car until they have it on. Since that dreadful day of the
accident almost seven years ago, I have made my mom wear her seatbelt
as well. I have put my cell-phone down when I drive and will
continue, to protect everyone around me.