Don’t be The Reason a Family is Separated

Driver education is extremely important in reducing the number of driving-related deaths, or rather, the retention of information learned in driver education classes is extremely important in reducing the number of driving-related deaths. If there’s one thing I have trouble with, it’s the retention of information, but my driver-ed teacher was very aware of this trait of mine because I wasn’t the only teenager in the class who had it. I really appreciate the way my teacher went about the class because while he had lesson plans he needed to get through, he put major emphasis on activities that would help us memorize information, more specifically laws and safety information. At the time I thought it was a waste of time going over these concepts over and over again, but as an adult, I now realize that I retained so much life-saving information about driving because of those activities. Driver education classes, the way they are taught, and the concepts they choose to focus on, are incredibly important foundations for reducing driving-related deaths.

In my communications class, our final was a group project to write an essay about a major issue in the world, and our ideas to fix it. My group chose “How To Reduce Danger On Our Roads”, and I’m going to paraphrase some of the ideas we came up with for our essay. As I mentioned before, the retention of information is something that many people struggle with, so requiring drivers to retake a driving test, both multiple choice and in a car with an instructor would ensure people regularly brush up on the laws and safety regulations related to driving. Next, a big motivation for much of the population is money, because of this, losing money can be a large motivation to not do something. Raising existing fines and adding new, larger fines for breaking laws and driving dangerously could be a big motivator for people who would otherwise disregard the laws and regulations to follow them more closely. The last idea we came up with is related to the last idea, including how to identify and fine more people who choose to break traffic laws. This idea comes from the Autobahn in Germany, which is a network of highways known for the high speeds it allows for most sections of the highways. There is typically no speed limit except for areas under construction, urban areas, and accident-prone areas, in these areas there are many cameras that track the speeds of vehicles and record the license plate numbers of vehicles that go over the speed limit or break other traffic laws. The person who owns the law-breaking vehicle will then receive a ticket and fine in the mail that they are required to pay. My mom got caught speeding by a camera while we were in Germany, and her speeding ticket got mailed to her home in the US, waiting for her when we arrived home. Implementing these high-tech cameras would give people another reason to follow traffic and safety laws because it would make them much more likely to get caught. Making sure more people follow traffic laws and safety regulations would aid in reducing the number of driving-related deaths.

I have witnessed many of my family members speed, rear-end, or be rear-ended, but most have not faced anything life-threatening. This is, except for my little sister, who was the victim of a very bad T-bone car accident on her way to Taco Bell. This accident was no fault of my sister, who is the safest driver I have ever known on the road, but the fault of the distracted driver of a speeding Ford Explorer. It was not disclosed to me what the distraction was, but the driver did not see the light that had been red for at least 20 seconds and drove over 50mph into the side of my dad’s truck that my sister had been driving. Thankfully the accident did not end up being fatal, she had some slipped ribs and PTSD among some other injuries, but the truck was totaled. My sister had chosen to drive my dad’s new Chevy truck that day instead of her old, rickety Dodge truck, but if she had been driving her own truck, that accident would’ve almost certainly been fatal for her. That day was a terrifying day for my family. While I am so grateful for the high-tech safety features of modern vehicles, not everyone is in a position to own one. It is so important that we drive responsibly so that we don’t make a Taco Bell run into a tragedy.

Although I made it a point to drive pretty safely before my sister’s accident, after the accident I told myself that I would do everything in my power to make sure that I don’t scare my family like that again, and so I don’t have to be responsible for someone else’s family experiencing that fear, or worse. I keep to the speed limit, if the driver that hit my sister hadn’t been speeding, the injuries would not have been as bad as they were, I am never on my phone while driving, and I don’t let anything take my attention away from the road in front of me while driving, this means conversations, excessively loud music, other drivers, etc. I don’t make sudden, reckless movements on the road, if I’m tired I don’t drive, if I become tired while driving I pull over in a parking lot and rest, every time I think about disregarding traffic safety, I think about what it felt like to get the text that my sister was in the hospital because of a car accident. I am definitely a backseat driver, I will get angry at someone for being on their phone while driving, not using their blinker, riding lines, not looking at the road, etc. This essay may sound a bit morbid, but it’s an unfortunate reality for so many people. It’s upsetting that so many people think that someone who sticks to traffic rules is annoying or uptight because these “annoying” people are saving lives by driving responsibly. I know one thing for sure, I don’t want to be responsible for separating a family, do you?