Education Over Luck

Carrie Andrews-Smith
“Education Over Luck”
DmvEdu.org Essay
11/10/2020

It happened in an instant.

One moment, my husband was driving his Suzuki Sidekick down I-40 East near Winston-Salem. The next he was in the median. He had no memory as to why. Fifty feet ahead, there was a bridge. He jerked the wheel to get back on the road, spun out across the road, smashed into the opposite guardrail, and went airborne.

Depending on who you asked, the car flipped anywhere from one to seven times. It landed on all four tires, facing the opposite direction he’d been going. Without question, it was totaled. But my husband was lucky. He was alive.

It’s hard to think about a fractured sternum, multiple cuts, bruises, contusions, and life-long issue with back pain could be considered “lucky” – not to mention the insult to his dignity when his friend sent him photos of the miles-long traffic he’d caused on the busy interstate. But it’s true. The accident could have been so much worse. I’ve no idea what fate had intended when it decided to save his life, but I’m grateful for it.

What I do know, from his stories and my own experience, is that most programs for driver education seem to embrace a bare-bones approach that ill prepares drivers for facing anything but the most basic of situations. Simply knowing the right pedal is go and the left pedal is stop isn’t enough. Simply knowing how to keep the car straight on the road isn’t enough. The mass and velocities at play can lead to devastation if not kept under control.

Driver education that includes how to deal with these more extraordinary circumstances can, simply put, save lives. According to the Federal Highway Administration, an average of 5,376 die in weather-related accidents each year, representing 16% of all crash fatalities¹. If even half of those were prevented by drivers with the skills needed to drive defensively in those conditions, another 2,688 people each year could survive. That’s just one type of accident that could benefit from enhanced driver education, but that number alone would make the effort worthwhile.

I mentioned how lucky my husband had been. But that didn’t tell the entire story. Though travelling on one of the busiest and longest interstates in the country, it just so happened he was virtually alone on his stretch of road when the accident occurred. What was an isolated event could have quickly spiraled into a multi-car massacre. Had he been better trained, he could have remained calm, taken an urgent but careful approach to getting back on the road, and prevented anyone from being hurt. These situations arise every day, and automobiles aren’t going away any time soon. We have to emphasize advanced driving techniques and strategies so the open road has fewer closed caskets.