More Than a Statistic

When
I was 8 years old I experienced a head on collision at a red light in
the middle of the day. With my 2 siblings and I in the back of the
car and my mother at the front, I was the first to see the car
coming. I screamed to no avail, and I still remember sitting on the
curb wondering how this happened. Reflecting on this moment now, I
wonder if this crash could have been prevented. While thankfully all
of us were safe, in 2012 there were roughly about 35,000 highway
deaths, and each of us could have been one of them. This number could
have been drastically reduced with drivers ed. In just teens
alone, 4.3% of deaths are avoided due to proper drivers ed.
Tickets are also reduced about 40%, making the roads a safer and less
hostile environment for all drivers. Drivers ed can reduce the number
of deaths on the road, but so can multiple other factors, such as not
drinking, staying alert, and calming your emotions before driving.
Drunk driving causes 1 death every 50 minutes in America, regardless
of the time of day. My family could have been another statistic, but
I am lucky I am alive to share how important proper drivers ed
is especially in youthful drivers. In a study that followed 150,000
teens over 8 years, uneducated teen drivers were 24 percent more
likely to be involved in a serious injury. While these numbers may
hold no emotional connection, I personally have seen the effects of
unsafe driving. 3 of my closest friends were involved in a wreck and
by a miracle, none of them were seriously harmed, although the car
was totaled, and they ended up in a ditch. How? All because of one
bad turn. Simple errors like these can always be avoided by staying
focused on the road. In teenagers especially it’s easy to zone out
while talking with your friends and blasting music. Not only does
this lead to speeding and sometimes excessively driving under the
speed limit, this leads to continual bad behavior. If nothing bad
happened the first time, it’s obviously not going to happen a second
time. Each person can become a safer driver in minimal ways. Simply
turning down your music, waiting to answer the phone, getting enough
rest before driving, and taking a moment to breathe before you start
your car makes a huge difference. You won’t just feel better while
focusing on life around you, you will feel better knowing the lives
you are saving, including your own. Make a conscious effort each day
to rid your mind of your bad driving habits, and start slowly
educating others to turn down their music and put down their phones
while you are in their passenger’s seat. It may not seem like much,
but you easily could’ve been that 8 year old on the curb, that
drunk driver, or those 3 friends looking for fun.