The Realities of Being a Driver

Walt Disney World, the happiest place on earth, I mean just by the nickname it’s supposed to be a perfect vacation, but that wasn’t the case for my family in June of 2019. It was our first road trip ever and the nearly 16-hour drive from where we lived in Connecticut at the time sounded like a real challenge. We left at about two in the morning so we could get through the areas of New Jersey that usually had the most traffic while the roads were mostly empty. Sounded like a brilliant idea, but less than two hours into the trip we got rear-ended by a drunk driver. That was the first car crash I had ever been in so it was pretty alarming, especially since my brother and I were sleeping in the back row of seats. Our bumper was pretty much hanging off our car, but the taillights and trunk, as scratched as they were, still worked. So after learning that we were on the way to a long awaited vacation, the firefighters duct-taped our bumper back on and allowed us to keep driving.

My family got pretty lucky because driving on a highway with a speed limit of 70 miles per hour, a car full of people, and a drunk driver could have ended a lot worse. The other driver was way beyond the legal alcohol limit and even tried to leave the scene before we documented the crash. Everything about the crash was his fault, and I wonder if he was given the same driver education that I was. My class might have been online in the depths of 2020, but we watched endless documentaries about drinking and driving and the consequences of your actions. They may have broken my heart but learning about those scenarios was plenty to convince me to never drink and drive. If the driver in our accident had gotten this same experience, I doubt he would ever drive while intoxicated. That’s one reason why driver education is so important. It opens your eyes to the statistics and the realities of being a driver. It’s not only the intoxicated driving, like I got a first-hand look at, that the class warns you about, but also the more general distracted driving because something as simple as a cell phone or radio could do the same damage.

However, distractions and intoxication aren’t the only things that cause accidents. Inclement weather, speeding, reckless driving, night driving, animal crossings, merging, and improper turns are just some of the other causes. The number of vehicle crashes is alarming and that’s because so is the list of things that can cause them. Something as personal as your emotions can even lead to the death of others on the road. The idea of that correlation might seem like nonsense to some which is another reason why diver education is so vital. It can’t guarantee that drivers won’t ever be in an accident, but it does guarantee that they are informed of every possible outcome on the road. Defensive driving is another concept that might seem odd to some, but it was the first topic covered in my driver education class and on my permit test. Crashes usually result from the mistake of one driver, the other drivers involved simply couldn’t react fast enough to protect themselves. That is where defensive driving comes in. It’s another one of the most important topics in driver education. You might be a flawless driver but still have a high chance of getting into an accident due to the deficit of others. Any scenario can turn deadly regardless of your driving abilities and even without distractions, that’s why driver education is critical to every driver’s license eligibility. It increases a driver’s proficiency in keeping themselves from harm. If every driver has an extensive knowledge of the laws of the road and the dangers, the death and crash rates could be greatly decreased.

That road trip to Disney World didn’t go as my parents had carefully planned, but it gave me an experience that I will never forget. The gut feeling of fear that the car might flip and the confusing jolt awake that the crash caused is something I will always remember. But people shouldn’t need to experience a crash to realize why driver safety is so important. Driver education has the same awakening effect which is why it is important for everyone to complete. Even if a person doesn’t plan on driving anytime soon, an education can help them prevent a crash even as a passenger by watching the road and their driver. Regardless of future plans, a driver’s education is necessary for everyone in order to keep our roads as safe as possible.