Preventing Accidents

I was only about 10 when it happened. It happened only a few minutes after my grandma picked me up from my house, with my parents giving me the “okay” to spend a day with her. That day was supposed to be another pleasant outing with my grandma. It was supposed to be a simple two-minute drive as my house and hers were almost right next to each other. Not a minute after we drove out of the driveway, down the road, down the hill where we lived…

BANG! We were hit from behind, right in front of my grandma’s house. The truck behind us had faulty brakes and on a hill it was easy for it to speed out of control, causing me and my grandma to crash. It was loud enough for my parents to hear from uphill. It was loud enough for me to scream from the sudden noise, while I was launched forward to the dashboard of the car, while the back was destroyed. The rest felt like a blur. My parents drove down right soon after we got down, yelling at the person who crashed into us. There were policemen and a firefighter there to see the damage. My dad was calling 911 because everyone thought I hit my head in the crash. And me? I had no idea. I was only 10 and I couldn’t remember anything besides the sound of me screaming and being yanked forward. Whether that was trauma wiping out that memory or amnesia from whiplash, that wasn’t something a child should be thinking of. I thought that I was going to die, especially when I heard the ambulance coming, especially when that was also the first time I had to go in one.

Accidents can happen anywhere, whether that be out on the highway or right at your own home. Even if you might not be the one driving, knowing how you can be safe on the road can help stop accidents from happening more often. If I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt during that crash, I would have flown out of the window. I would have busted my head on the dashboard enough to remember it. If the person who crashed had checked if they had good brakes before they drove on the road, that accident wouldn’t have happened in the first place. My grandma and I would be dead if the truck was faster, unable to control its speed and slamming into us harder if the driver was a little more irresponsible. That is why driver education is important. To stop innocent lives from dying due to poor driving.

To start with driver education, we have to start young. Parents could start by teaching more about the road other than wearing their seatbelt or stopping when the traffic light is red. Giving children more information about traffic in the world can start them on the trip to driving safely. However, parents can only do so much when it comes to their child’s education, for people to be safer drivers, proper funding must be distributed to driver education courses in schools. With states like California pulling funds from driver education and the education system itself being more stressful for students, it can be quite difficult for students to care about driver education in the first place.

Along with proper education courses, learning awareness on the road can help someone be a safe driver. It’s what my parents would usually say to me, how you “always have to be aware of your surroundings”. One of the most important things a driver should know is what the other drivers are doing. Just because someone does have experience and learned the basics of driving doesn’t mean others know that either. Whether that be drunk drivers, drivers on their phones, or even emergencies such as what happened in my accident. To drive safely, and to prevent more deaths, more people have to be aware of everything on the road. Crashes could happen at any time, so people need to be ready to swerve or stay out of the way.

However, even awareness alone can’t make driving safer. I believe that driving laws also have to be heavily enforced, especially now. If someone chooses to speed up past the limit, they are not only risking themselves but they are risking others’ lives and property. It may not seem fair when it comes to having speeding tickets but imagine if you were the victims of those car crashes. Losing your car and possibly your life all because someone didn’t care about the speed limit. Having to deal with your passengers’ deaths yourself all because someone wanted to drink and drive.

Accidents can happen, there’s no doubt about it. No matter where someone is, no matter who someone’s around. However, there are ways to reduce the number of injuries, death, and destruction. Proper education, awareness of the drivers on the road, and taking driving laws more seriously can prevent any more close calls and tragic accidents.