It’s Not Just About You

Josmarie Graciani

Drivers Education Essay Contest

30 November 2020

It’s Not Just About You

Driving a car has become such a standard skill that it is thought that one can learn it without the need for an educational course. It has become so normalized that some people are overconfident when it comes to driving, or worse, they don’t take the act of operating an automated vehicle seriously. They call, eat, drink, argue, take drugs, while driving. Putting not only them, but everyone at risk. These people know about the consequences? Yes, they obviously do. It is impossible that they do not know, they appear everywhere. But do they think these consequences will come to them? Of course not, those things only happen to others, not to them. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but accidents can happen to anyone. Can some accidents be prevented and avoided? Yes. If you learn how to react sooner, some accidents may never happen. And how can you learn to react to this? Yes, road safety education. Yes, I mean that course that some people despise and ignore the importance of before they start driving.

What is the importance of driver education before hitting the road? I’ll explain it simply, so just imagine this situation. Imagine that you give a package full of Lego pieces to a child who knows more or less how to use them, apart from the legos, you only give him an image of what you want the final product to look like next to a broken and fragmented instruction manual . The child, not having the step-by-step instructions, will have to try to put together the final product through trial and error, taking his own time and rhythm, because without clear instructions, he will only be able to make a product as close as possible to the image. The parts of the product that are not visible, such as the blocks inside and in the back, the child will put them together in a way that works so that the front looks like the picture, not the right way. This is how going on the road without driver education works. All non-drivers have a basic idea about driving, it’s just pressing a pedal to move a car from point A to point B, right? Wrong, just like the child in the previous situation, the non-driver only has a general idea of how they are supposed to drive based on the image in their heads. Those who do not attend driver education receive broken and fragmented advice and instructions from those who teach them, but those people are not dedicated to teaching, and those people do not have a detailed plan about everything that needs to be learned. Therefore, without clear instructions and without a safe environment, learners must learn to drive in risky situations through trial and error. Not only putting your own life at risk, but that of all those around you. The road is not a place for trial and error, it is not a place to enter to learn. You should only get on the road when you already know how to handle risky situations that may occur in your area, and that is what driver education does. It teaches you to identify, act, and drive through a risky situation that may occur on the road, reducing the risk of accidents and deaths that may occur due to inexperience.

Some people say that over time you build confidence when driving, but you should never give that kind of confidence to a machine that at any moment can get out of your control and hurt you, and everything around you in a serious way. As harmless as it may seem, driving a car is one of the most frequent causes of injuries and deaths in this period of time. When being behind the wheel, you must stay alert at all times, to be able to react to any unforeseen event that may occur. Do not text, do not call, do not attend the baby, do not think that resting your eyes for five seconds is fine, do not pick up that delicious sandwich next to you, for absolutely no reason take your eyes off the road while you are on the move. A one-second distraction is a one-second reaction to a possible accident on the road. That second may have saved a limb, or a life. Perhaps that second could have prevented the permanent leg injury of that future famous basketball player, who will now have to change his dream and throw all his life efforts into the trash. Do not drive while in an unclear state of mind, do not drive drunk, or high, or when your emotions reach a peak; like when you are furious, or extremely sad or happy. If you feel like the king of the world, don’t drive until that feeling subsides. Anything that increases your confidence in your driving skills and or decreases your sense of alertness should be avoided. Remember that if you hit someone while driving drunk it is not an accident, it is murder.

I have seen and experienced a few car accidents. The most remarkable of all happened on the freeway right in front of my school. After all the students left the classrooms, the highway in front of the school was crowded with cars and students, nothing out of the ordinary. About three minutes after I got into my mother’s car and drove a few feet away, I heard the sound of a large collision and was startled. My mother stops at the red light at the traffic light ahead, and I turn back to see what happened. What I see is a chain car accident, where four cars hit one behind the other. Later I found out that the accident was caused by two students fighting while one of them was driving, the angry student pressed the brake instead of the accelerator, causing the driver behind him to crash because he could not react in time, the same happened with the two other drivers. Everyone else behind them managed to stop or swerve before colliding. It is safe to assume that that student did not keep his license. There were no serious injuries involved, but plenty of damage to compensate. I can also admit, with my deepest shame, that I have family members who have a bad habit of driving while distracted. One of them collided with a cow for that reason. Another relative murdered a young girl with a bright future ahead of her due to distracted driving. Even today he lives with the guilt of that death, and is one of those who takes road trips more seriously.

What steps can you take to be a responsible driver? Always keep in mind that by putting your hands on the wheel, your life, and that of everyone around you, becomes your responsibility. The consequences of your actions will not only fall on you, but also on the victims and their families. An accident caused due to a preventable factor (distraction, sleep, drugs, alcohol…) is not an accident, it is a crime. If you feel like you must stop while driving, pull off the road and park the car, don’t drive if you are not maxed out. Being alert is the most important step when driving. Don’t trust yourself or the car. Always follow the rules of the road, there are drivers who see others breaking the rules, they do it too, which ends up causing an accident. All your attention should be focused on the road to react to any circumstance as soon as possible.

The road is a terrain shared by hundreds of people, using potential machines of destruction at a speed that allows only seconds to react. Educate yourself, prepare yourself, and then get involved. When hitting the road without proper preparation, it is only a matter of time before you end in a serious situation that you will not know how to handle. Do not get distracted while driving, nor do you drive in a state that could prevent you from reacting to a situation as soon as possible. Listen to the anecdotes of your friends and family about the situations that happened to them on the road, think about the way they handled it, and reflect on how you should act if you were in the same situation. Be serious every time you drive a car, even if it is the same route every day. And most of all, always keep your guard up while on the go. On the road it’s not just about you anymore.