“To Be, Or Not to Be”

On December 27, 2022, I walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles, took my Learner Permit test, and passed, making me an official student to learn to drive. At 16, this was an important rite of passage that I was reluctant to take on because approximately 2 years earlier on August 9, 2020, my cousin Jonas’ best friend named Jake at 16 years old died on Block Island in a Driving Under the Influence crash that sent shock waves to his Fairfield Ludlowe High School, his family, friends and community. The lives of 5 Ludlowe students involved in that car accident and their families forever changed that day, which is why I hope one day the Jake’s Mandatory Driver Education in Accredited Public and Private High Schools is passed into federal law to protect all of us and to help decrease the deaths and injuries of Americans caused by driving accidents. Driver’s education is even more important than any math, English, science, history or physical education class that we are mandated to take in order to graduate high school because the likelihood of us needing the use of the Pythagorean Theorem or Shakespeare’s Hamlets’ “To be, or not to be, that is the question” in our everyday lives is null to us high schoolers needing to learn to drive accurately and safely each day to perform daily tasks that include to study at school, to work, to shop or to socialize.

When I visited Jonas’ new home in Connecticut one day, I saw a picture of Jake smiling in his living room. Jake was a successful active sports player in football and lacrosse. He was funny, charismatic and a bright star among his friends and family. Jake’s friend who was driving the car that day was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of liquor or drugs resulting in death, driving under the influence of liquor or drugs resulting in serious bodily injuries, driving to endanger, resulting in death and driving to endanger, resulting in serious bodily injury. The guilt of the driver alone would drive any teenager insane who caused the death of their friend, but also for your life to be criminally ruined before it ever got a chance to start is the loss of not only Jake but the loss of a life of another promising teenager who made wrong decisions that day. Wrong decisions behind a car that led to death, injury and never-ending pain for everyone involved and their loved ones.

Maybe we do need to understand Shakespeare’s Hamlets’ quote in the context of driver education. For the driver in Jake’s accident, “To be the driver or not be the driver when I am under the influence?” For Jake as the passenger, “To be a passenger or not be a passenger when the driver is under the influence?” For the Education Department, “To mandate driver education in high school education or not mandate driver education to help prevent deaths like Jake’s?” That is indeed the question we must seriously reflect and answer in order to effect real change in these stunning numbers of accidents with injuries and deaths, especially with novice drivers. Mostly middle class and upper-class families can afford to send their teenagers to driver education to learn best driving practices on the road with an actual car, beyond the mandated online classes needed to obtain your road test and official driver’s license. Especially during these difficult economic times, most teenagers with learners permits have to rely on their parents and friends to teach them, not an official driving school. This socio-economic dynamic on how we are all learning to drive does not benefit all Americans because it is in everyone’s best interest to develop quality drivers on the road. Americans regardless of socio-economic status all share the same road.

With my Learner’s Permit in my wallet, I drive to and from school each day with my mother on the passenger seat and I do see the need for Jake’s Mandatory Driver Education in Accredited Public and Private High Schools. How did many of these drivers earn their Driver’s License? The following are three of many instances of poor driving that I have witnessed with my Learner’s Permit: 1) The light turns green and the car in front of me is not moving forward because I can see them scrolling on their cell phone. The driver behind me honks and then the distracted cell phone driver sees the green light and drives forward. 2) I stop at a red light with adjacent cars to the left and right of me and why do I smell marijuana and see smoke coming from the car to the left of me? Is contact high going to negatively impact my driving? The light turns green and I let the marijuana car drive far ahead of me while I find a parking spot to assess if I could keep driving. 3) The light turns green and I begin to transition my foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal and a car “eats” the red light as I slam the brakes to prevent a collision. Cell phone distractions, alcohol/marijuana use and driving through a red light negatively impacts the quality of driving in our country. Mandating driver education in all public and private high school will equally teach quality driving techniques to all, making our nation safer on the roads with decreased accidents. Will we become a nation that passes Jake’s Mandatory Driver Education in Accredited Public and Private High Schools?

Short Description of Essay :

This essay explores the story of Jake, a 16-year-old teenager, who died as a passenger in a DUI accident, and the author Maliek, who is also 16, facing the challenges of others’ poor driving as he begins to learn to drive with his Learner’s Permit. The aforementioned experiences lay the foundation for the need to pass a federal law that mandates Jake’s Mandatory Driver Education in Accredited Public and Private High Schools across our nation in order to create safer roads and to decrease accidents that lead to deaths and injuries.