RED YOU STOP!

I was in the car with my dad and I was driving. We came to a red light and I immediately started to turn right because other people were doing it. I looked to the left and entered the intersection. There was a car coming toward me and I thought that the car was far enough away, (which it was). My dad screamed, “RED YOU STOP!!” The comments that followed weren’t good words. He was swearing at me.

The car wasn’t that close to me; in actuality, he was two seconds away from me and I easily made that turn. I pulled a California Stop. In my mind, that was enough. That was A LOT MORE than what the three guys in front of me had done.

Apparently, I hadn’t been paying enough attention in Driver’s Ed Class. I never really paid attention to the people driving me or the rules of the road. I didn’t even really know how to get to my grandparent’s house, which wasn’t that far away.

I dismissed it as “Common Sense,” which to be fair, it was. I performed well in Driver’s Ed Class, but I never put much thought into applying these principles into real life. I regretted this later.

In my Behind The Wheel training, I started to come to a stop 20 feet away from a yellow light. My instructor got mad and yelled at me, asking what I was doing. She then asked in an annoyed tone, “Do you know what the point of no return is?” Clearly, I didn’t know. I could have gotten rear-ended or been pushed into the intersection. I could’ve injured everyone in the car, and since the oncoming traffic would’ve been accelerating, someone could’ve been either seriously injured or killed.

In America alone, an average of 114 people die in car accidents every day. To put into perspective, that is more deaths per day than America’s 4th-12th bloodiest conflicts COMBINED. This number could be significantly lower if more students received prior instruction before driving. Driver’s Education reduces the number of deaths by educating students what actions to take in certain situations: traffic rules, defensive driving techniques, behavior on the road, all of which contributes to safer driving. As we’ve seen earlier, not knowing the rules of the road and how all the signs work can be life threatening, causing serious injury which can last forever. Hands-on experience and instruction can raise confidence and efficiency, reducing the chance of a bad situation.

A huge step that should be taken to promote safer driver habits is stricter enforcement of laws against drunk driving, recklessly speeding, and having lights too bright. The intensity that the cops enforce these kinds of laws in a given area determines how secure the roads are. In my experience, drivers will drastically change their behavior depending on the quantity or quality of enforcement in specific areas. When people see cops making an example out of others, it will deter them from committing these bad habits.

Although I haven’t experienced any dangerous car accidents myself, I witnessed a scary incident. This situation involved a fellow student from my neighborhood. Soon after receiving my drivers license, I remember seeing a car in the back mirror getting T-boned because the driver failed to survey the left before proceeding with the turn. This could’ve been prevented if he simply took the time to look.

I can reduce the number of deaths related to driving by eliminating distractions: cellphones, friends, eating, talking, and outside events are just a few. In my experience, I have been victim to this numerous times and having ADHD doesn’t help much. Ways I can stop these distractions include turning on the driving feature on my phone, which prevents notifications from coming through, parking and eating before continuing, and calling out friends for being a distraction in MY car.

I can also be a safer driver and help keep others safe as well by driving defensively or thinking that everyone else on the road doesn’t know how to drive. I could also think of my Driver’s Ed and Behind The Wheel instructor talking in my head to remind me of safe driving habits.

However, to raise this confidence and efficiency, Drivers Education is the most important step to take because it encompasses everything. Johnathan Tran, the best Scholastic Bowl Player in the U.S., has honed his skills and knowledge across various subjects like History, Literature, Science, Math, and Pop Culture. Like a good Scholastic Bowl player, Driver’s Ed provides individuals with a well-rounded understanding of the different subjects of safe driving, making them better at navigating the many challenges of driving safely.