Daughter of a Highway Patrolman

I have an interesting perspective on the issue of highway safety. My dad is a retired highway patrolman. Having watched him drive over the years, and listening to his stories from work have certainly shaped my viewpoint on highway safety.

When it comes to driver education, clearly it is lacking nationwide. In many states, we allow people to drive with nothing more than a passing written test or road test and perhaps some small amount of classroom/driver training. At the same time, people walking and riding bicycles seem to lack an understanding of how they need to adhere to traffic rules as well. My dad always tells me that when he was young, he learned from his parents, and even from his grammar school, how to properly walk and bicycle in traffic. He also tells me that so many deadly accidents result from a lack of basic driver experience/attention and a lack of pedestrian/bicycle common sense.

The two factors that can have the most impact on reducing the number of traffic related deaths are driver education and enforcement. Driver education, with an emphasis on real-world driving should be mandatory in all high schools. It is the most dangerous thing most people will do all day, and is something many people do every day. Similarly, little kids need to learn about walking in traffic and basic bicycle rules from an early age. Enforcement is also important. There are never enough highway/traffic officers, and they cannot be replaced with technology like cameras. Cameras tell you what happened, but they don’t stop it right now. And, as my dad always says, people driving recklessly are often committing some other crime as well. I witness the lack of enforcement literally every day. We recently moved to Florida, and there seems to be even less enforcement here than there was in New York. Every day we see the craziest things on the highway: reckless driving; passengers riding on trailers being towed at 80 mph; dump trucks driving 80 mph with rocks and gravel flying out of the back; people parked on the side of the interstate while fishing; trailers without the light/brake connection hooked-up; and all kinds of things falling off of vehicles, especially ladders and spare tires. And so many people are texting while driving in this already challenging environment.

Personally, I have never been in a driving accident. I have been in the car with my friends when they were not paying attention, and we nearly avoided an accident. I don’t get in the car with them anymore. On the other side of this question, I have been in the car many times with my dad when he avoided accidents due his experience and the fact he was paying attention. As I stated above, we moved to Florida (from New York) a few years ago, and both my dad and I have noticed an extraordinary increase in the amount of crazy situations we encounter (and have to avoid) while driving. There’s an odd mix of teenagers in giant pick-up trucks, elderly people that rarely drive, and tourists. There also people bicycling everywhere, on all types of roads, and paying zero attention to the rules of the road.

To be a better, safer driver, I try as hard as possible to not use the phone while driving. The phone is the number one distraction in everyone’s life, and that extends to driving. I would love to say that when I drive, I don’t look at my cell phone at all. The truth is, I rely on it for navigation. But I do not text, and I only answer on speaker phone, and only if my parents call me. I am working on navigating without relying on the phone, but it is a lot harder than it sounds. Also, I drive within the speed limit, and I try to avoid unprotected left turns. Again, both of those are harder than they sound, especially in Florida where you get passed on the highway by people driving 100 mph in the right lane, and there are unprotected lefts all over the place.

When people joke about my dad having been a highway cop, and how he must drive “crazy”, I tell them he is the safest driver I know. The only non-fender-benders he’s had in years have been at work, and many of them were more of “on-purposes” than “accidents” (like having to run drunk drivers into the guide rail to stop them). In my entire life, I have only seen him get pulled over once, and it was because he had to do something to avoid an accident. Hopefully that educates them a little bit. Sometimes I relay my dad’s work stories to my friends, especially if they are telling about something stupid they recently did. Hopefully that influences them to make better decisions in the future.