One Hour is Not Enough

Carli
Miller

Every
year, there are approximately 37,000 lives taken behind the wheel,
37,000 too many. That number, as high as it is already, is steadily
increasing annually especially with eager teengers ready to hit the
roads. Personally, when I first started driving, I remember being
very anxious as I thought about all the tragic incidents that could
occur while I was behind the wheel. However, most of my friends had
the typical teenage adrenaline rush when it came to showing off their
new cars and driving all their friends to their favorites spots in
town. With that, came the speeding, texting, and overall
carelessness.

During
the first semester of my senior year, one of my friends flipped his
car on the side of the road with four people in the car. Many people
were shocked, but things like that happen every minute of the day.
The week following, we had two police officers come to our school
begging us to take better precautions, which nobody seemed to take
seriously. Luckily, nobody was seriously injured but that incident
just goes to show the level of carelessness that many people have
while driving. I think as we all go through drivers ed class, the
overall thought of finally getting to drive a car and have new
experiences is really all anyone can think about. However, I think
that all new drivers need to be exposed to the reality of driving and
number of driving related deaths to fully be able to understand that
not being attentive and careful on the road can have very serious
effects.

I
think that as driving instructors continue to teach students about
traffic laws and violations, they need to spend a lot more time
discussing the harm in negligent driving. In personal experience, as
a class we probably spent about an hour in total talking about death
related incidents. One hour apart from the other tens of hours I
spent in that class actually talking about what really matters. You
never know one text, one call, or one car can impact your life
forever. One hour is simply not enough.