From Red Car to Race Car

Did you know that on Life360 there is something that goes faster than the red car? It’s a race car and we discovered it on prom night. Atlanta has a problem with super speeders and I had the unfortunate experience of riding with one to prom.

On the night of prom I was taking pictures with my friend before her date arrived. He was driving us to the dance that night. Once we finished with pictures we all walked up to his car and my parents gave me hugs before we left and told us to be safe. My dad said, “Just remember you have precious cargo tonight.” Reminding him to drive safely. That happened to be the opposite of what happened. This year our prom was located differently. Normally it is local to us at a technical college campus only ten minutes from our school. However this year there were complaints and people wanted somewhere more fancy. Our prom ended up being farther south into Atlanta in Decatur. This meant that the drive took us straight down the 400 and onto I-85 in very busy traffic. I was sitting in the back behind the passenger where I had a perfect view of the speedometer. I watched as it fluctuated quickly, noticing top speeds in the 90’s. When we finally reached the venue I let out a sigh of relief that we had gotten there safely. My friend’s date who was driving asked how he did and I replied, “A little fast for my liking.” Unfortunately he did not take my comment into consideration. At the dance we were having a good time but they wanted to leave really early. I offered to let them go and said that my mom had no issue coming to pick me up but they insisted on staying and taking me home as planned. When the time came to leave we all jumped in the car and started to head back to my house. The music was blaring loudly and this time I saw an even faster speed. We had reached 110 miles per hour. While in Atlanta traffic he would weave around traffic at high speeds. My heart was racing the whole ride home and to distract myself I went on my phone. When I had finally reached home I was just happy to be in one piece.

This night was frightening and I wished I had spoken up for myself and told him to slow down or that I wasn’t comfortable riding home with him. I believe that there needs to be stricter penalties for traffic violations for young drivers. I also think that the time a student has their learners permit should be extended from one year to two years and that there needs to be a required amount of hours a student must have in order to get the licence that needs to be tracked on a log that is taken in when taking the drivers test. Another idea to protect drivers is to make the driving portion of the test harder. In my community the driving test takes less than 10 minutes and is way too simple. Even as a young driver I see plenty of reckless adults on the road every day.

Another experience I have seen first hand is my brother learning how to drive. He is coming up on one year of having his permit and being able to take the drivers test. However I don’t believe he is prepared at all. He still struggles with things like merging, braking, and not getting distracted. He also hasn’t had as much practice driving as I remember having when I was learning to drive. I don’t believe he is ready to drive on the road himself. For his safety and others. He is also taking the drivers education course through our school which I have heard is very easy and has a lot of downtime which can be taken up with other forms of instruction for new drivers. I believe that the driving schools are better suited for new drivers more than the in school courses.

I can admit that there are parts of driving that I can improve on that will make me safer on the road, like not following too closely to other drivers. I hope that as other drivers read these entries that they reflect on their own driving habits, learn from mistakes and drive more carefully. I won’t be the race car.