Safe Driving- Listen Up

I have never been in a car accident, but my life has been forever changed because of one. When my father was 19, he and a friend were driving back to college the night after Saint Patrick’s Day. They had a car engine in the back seat as part of a project they were working on. Devastatingly, a drunk driver rear ended my dad’s car causing the engine to shoot forward and hit him in the back of the head. What I still cannot even believe is that while my dad immediately went unconscious the drunk driver was able to get out of his car and attempt to walk away. How is it fair that someone can completely alter the life of someone else as well as their future family while having little impact on themselves?

The accident left my dad in critical condition. Immediately he was taken to the hospital where we went through many surgeries. This left him with part of his brain removed, specifically the cerebellum, as well as with a tracheostomy tube. After some recovery my dad had no choice but to move back in with his mom. He had to drop out of college and spend his time relearning how to walk instead of working towards his goal of becoming a pilot. Overall, my dad is now permanently disabled and unable to work. However, I can not say that nothing good came from the tragic event. As a result of my dad not working, he stayed at home with my sister and I while my mom went to work. This allowed me to form a very close relationship with my father. This relationship has formed me to be extremely passionate about safe driving as well as education. Unsafe driving almost killed my father while taking away his opportunity to further his education. I am blessed to have the chance to continue with my own education while as also having never encountered a life altering accident.

It is important to encourage driver education to reduce the number of driving related deaths. Educating drivers leads people to not only memorize safe driving habits, but also understand why those habits matter. When people understand the value of something they are more likely to support it. I feel that the most effective way to decrease driving related deaths would be to include a mandatory driver’s education in high schools. I understand that my experience with driving education may be more extreme than others because my dad was the one to teach me how to drive. He was very detailed in explaining every circumstance I may encounter as well as serving as a real-life example of unsafe driving. Yet, I feel that my experience learning how to drive majorly altered how I approach driving now. If more people were exposed to detailed instructions on how and when to drive, then there would be less room for error while driving. Steps to achieve this goal would include to construct a proper driver’s curriculum, propose the class to school boards, and work with schools to find the most efficient wat to incorporate the class into the high school curriculum.

Mandatory driving classes would be the most impactful on driving related deaths because emotional and descriptive results of unsafe driving could be shared to young drivers. This would be a good thing because it would encourage new drivers to take the responsibility of driving seriously. They can then take the lessons learned from the class and carry them throughout their entire life.

I firmly believe driving classes would positively affect the number of deaths from driving, but I understand that many steps would need to be taken to achieve that. Therefore, I work to control my controllables by practicing safe driving myself. I do this by never driving while on my phone and always making sure I am properly focused, specifically that I am not too tired. I also encourage my friends to prioritize their safety while driving by making it known that I will always be one phone call away from picking them up if they ever feel unsafe to drive.

Overall, my life has been seriously impacted by a car accident. I am heartbroken that my dad has had to go through everything he did but I am grateful that he has been able to persevere through the hard times and teach me the importance of safe driving. I aspire to continue with my safe driving practices as well as to share the importance of safe driving with others as a way to decrease the amount of driving related deaths.