The Issue of Irresponsible Driving and the Importance of Education

When I was in third grade, our family trip to Texas turned into a disaster. On our road back home, a large “BOOM!” followed a complete glass shatter in the back- only a second for my family to realize that a car had crashed into ours. We were frozen in place, my 8-year old younger brothers fell silent, and my parents were terrified to check we were alive and okay. Fortunately, we were all alive. But my parents got into greater injuries, and I remember following them to physical therapy for many years.

When I became older, my mom had told me two things about the aftermath of the incident. One, the driver that crashed us, was on the phone. Two, my parents were furious at how the driver only responded, “I have good insurance,” after the incident.

My dad had taught me to drive mostly, but I learned the most valuable lessons ever. He always tells me, “When you’re on the wheel, the lives of the five members of our family are in your hands”. Driver’s education is important because it teaches you how much responsibility you must have. Not only is it supposed to educate you on the street laws, it reminds you of the potential danger such as distracted driving. The phone use, which was the reason for our incident, is especially prevalent. According to studies, it is “estimated that at least 23% of all car accidents each year involve cell phone use – that’s 1.3 million crashes” (Snyder). Knowing this information warns people, but the lack of it will only repeat the case of a worse scenario than our family’s.

At the infrastructure level, there are ways that the state can act to reduce this danger. One of the most effective plans in my research is found to be lane reduction. According to an article, the technique, which aims to reduce the number of lanes, produces “reduced crossing distance and exposure for pedestrians while also reducing vehicle speeds and the potential for rear-end collisions” (Zegeers). When I ride buses and walk to my school, I notice how frightening it is when the car swooshes and the wind brushes right against my arm. I believe this is especially important in the US, where motor vehicles are prominent, to give pedestrians a space.

Citizens, especially teenagers, need to take Driver’s Education more seriously. It is vital to know why such education is especially important for them. According to the AP Psychology curriculum I was part of in high school, I learned that teens often make risky decisions because of their underdeveloped frontal lobes in their brain. Namely, they prioritize instant dopamine rather than safety. The law already requires the students under 18 must take a driving course, and they cannot drive others for the first six months of getting a license. Yet, this isn’t often the most desired case from what I hear from my peers: “If you don’t get caught, it’s not illegal.” Though most of my friends seem to have known the law by the book, they really lack morals as a young citizen. If such an attitude continues, it will lead to dangerous, irreversible consequences. Overall teens must receive constant reminders and repeated education about driving safety.

Knowledge is power. I may have less power and voice as a teenager, I can still educate the people who are near me. My mom and dad always remind me before I go out and drive my friends that I should be careful and not be distracted while driving. In the same way, I will remember to warn my friends that, when they’re driving me, they are in charge of many lives: my friend and I, plus dozens of people on the street. When they are texting while driving, I’m going to instantly exclaim to them not to. It can be embarrassing to “overreact” about it, but it is the quickest and safest way to express my responsibility as a citizen to maintain strict safety.

Finally, I want to discuss this societal matter from an Asian immigrant’s perspective. This is rooted from my experience and cognitive dissonance between my two cultures. To trace back, when my family got into an accident, the only words from the person who crashed our car were, “We got a good license”, which my Korean-raised parents are still frustrated about after 9 years. The way everything was handled under cold, rational law instead of a sincere apology made their emotional trauma worsen. And from that day, my parents constantly- and fearfully- learned to remind me never to say “Sorry” if I ever get into car accidents. From this rationality, I developed a notion that the social stigma about car accidents – or any sort of law-related incidents – in the US is more or less weak. I am in no way suggesting that the US law should be lenient and emotional; yet these cold, rational laws can have an impact on US citizens to treat accidents less seriously. I perceive that their collective moral responsibility in street laws is not strong because there aren’t any moral consequences of stigma to make them feel guilty for. American culture is built on individualism, so such thinking is culpable if people don’t take these accidents as morally wrong as a citizen. Therefore, as much as this could be a little contradictory to what I need to write for this essay, I believe the real issue of irresponsible driving in the US is beneath the states-level or education. Rather, I wanted to present that it’s deeply rooted in the culture and its treatment of morality. I think American and Asian culture must learn from each other, and that is the first thing we should do in Driver’s Education. Education on other countries’ street laws and examination of their data will be beneficial to American people. It will help them grow sympathy from looking at other’s perspectives in the street laws. I do not think we can learn if we keep trying to find answers within ourselves, but we need to interact outside.

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