Driving Educations i Important

Driving education is extremely important, especially in reducing the number of deaths. Driver education helps reduce those fatal accidents because it teaches you to focus and be aware of your surroundings when you’re in a vehicle, driving or not you should be paying attention and making the right decisions for the scenarios. Being able to react and control the car is key, if you aren’t taught how to drive in snow, you’ll have a tough time and most likely will get stuck or slide, be taught and willing to learn, I know all of this from experience. If I had a better driving education in Buhl Idaho, I wouldn’t have had the traumatic event I did, so stay aware and learn everything even if your town doesn’t get snow often, you never know. Buhl taught me nothing on snowy icy roads, and I didn’t think about learning since I lived in a desert that got little to no snow during winter months, but I moved to college and had no idea how to control my vehicle when I came to a road condition I wasn’t used to and taught about. Learning is a great way to reduce the numbers of fatalities in car accidents and driving in general, knowing your car, surroundings, and how to react can save yours and other people’s lives. I’m from a southern Idaho town called Buhl, we barely got snow and was never taught how to drive it in unless it was by your parents, I learned to drive from my driving instructor ( who was also my science teacher), If I had gotten a chapter on how to handle my car in snow, I think I wouldn’t have had the car accident I did. November 19^th 2024 it was a Tuesday and I was just heading back from my boyfriends house from hanging out with him over the weekend. He lives in Newport Washington, a two hour drive from my college in Moscow Idaho. It was 7 in the morning, and I was in a great mood, jamming out to music, excited to get back to my dorm room to see my cat after leaving her there for the first time without me. The road I normally take goes through Sprit Lake, then the outskirts of Rathdrum, then Highway 95 all the way back to Moscow. The weather was nice, it was a good 50 degrees outside, nothing could hurt me and my beautiful 1997 red Jeep Cherrokee which I had named respectfully “Reggie”. I got passed Spirit Lake and was on the overpass above the train tracks near my boyfriend’s old childhood home in Rathdrum, bopping to “if I could turn back time” by Cher (ironic). I didn’t notice the black ice, i didn’t know what to do, all I felt was my tired began to slide so I counter turned my steering wheel (I now know is a wrong move), I slid the other way and out of fear of going over the overpass to my death, I turned again into oncoming traffic. Keep in mind I’m being a dump truck going 30 miles an hour. With Cher in the background foreshowing what I’ll want every day since then, all I could do was close my eyes, tightly grip the steering wheel and brace for impact. I hit a company silver pickup tuck, slide and somehow was hit by a green pickup truck, I felt the two collisions, but no remembrance of seeing a second truck. I opened my eyes gasping for air, the guy who I suppose came from the green pickup was there talking to me through my window trying to open it I took it all in and rolled down my window was started balling knowing he was gone, my car was gone, Reggie was my pride and joy and I flaunted him everywhere I went, I made so many friends all because of that beat up car, he was precious to me. My phone which was in a phone holder had broken free and was on my dashboard, I grabbed it with shaky hands and unlocked it. The first thing that appeared was Life360, with a crash response, saying “we have noticed some unusual movement, would you like us to alert your family you were in a crash?”, it hit me so hard. My mom is still In Buhl, which is a 9-hour drive from Moscow, but I tried to call her first, she was at work and gave me no response, so I called my brother, he was a mechanic and the closest father figure I have, I told him what happened and to call Mom. The guy at my window told me to stay still but with my chest so close to my steering wheel I didn’t feel safe, and the smell was making me feel so ill. I then called my boyfriend who was asleep, he jumped out of bed and got his mom up and was out of the house in 2 minutes. I was at least 40 minutes away from his house and I gave them the wrong street name on accident, but they hauled butt there to help me. Once I hung up I took a breath, it hurt but all I knew was I had to get out of the driver’s side seat, the door was jammed from the frame bending in, and my passage side door worked so I pushed my suitcase back, that was originally in my trunk, and crawled over sitting there and accessing the damages, I had a cut on my leg that was bleeding and my arm hurt like hell. An ambulance soon showed up and a guy looked at me and said I was fine even though I was having a panic attack and couldn’t move my arm since it hurt so bad, I get it their busy but give a poor teen a break, then the rudest sheriff shows up, shows no empathy and writes me a 90 dollar ticket even though I’m hysterically crying in front of him for speeding, the speed limit was 45, I was going 30. I never looked at the front of my car, I was so afraid of what it looked like, I didn’t even get photos which I regret. I got out and limped my way to remove all my belongings from the car and put them on the side of the road, the whole road was covered in ice. Removing my belongings out of the car that I was planning to have until I died, or his transmission blew broke my heart, I had always joked that if I was to get into a car accident that Reggie would protect me and I’ll walk away with nothing but bruises and scratches, and I’m proud to say I’m right. I sat there bawling while unloading the thing I had that was closest to home all the way out there in Northern Idaho until my boyfriend showed up and helped me load up his moms car with my stuff, I took the plates off of Reggie’s to remember him (turned out they were still good and I used them for my newer car). I sat there with no tears falling as I just stared at the back of the seat in front of me while my boyfriend comforted me, I was lost, scared, confused. I’m still not good today. Now with the car I got from GoFundMe money, I can’t look at it like its mine, I’m afraid it won’t ever be MY car, it’s not Reggie. It sounds silly but that car got me to college, that was my car, it was perfect. I’m still afraid to drive, my BPM spikes every time I’m behind a wheel, I don’t feel safe anymore. So please be educated and safe, yes, my accident wasn’t fatal as I walked away with a torn piercing, dislocated toe, major sprained wrist, and a now nasty scar on my leg. Don’t forget to buckle up and pay attention and practice different weather conditions even if you don’t think you’ll need them, you will never know. Be safe and take precautions, you never know what the road looks like, black ice is hard to spot, and don’t let an accident steal your thunder, be you but safe.