Protect Others By Not Speeding

Living in a more rural part of my home state, California, I take the notoriously dangerous Highway 17 to school and back every single weekday.  Due to the many accidents on this highway, locals dub the highway gruesome nicknames, like Blood Alley and Killer 17, and news sources name 17 one of California’s most perilous roads.  Not to mention, I take the hardest stretch of the 1200 mile long highway, especially nicknamed Patchen Pass for its elevation changes, curvy turns, and particularly slick roads on rainy days in winter months.  As a regular commuter, I see accidents on Highway 17 a few times a week.  No matter how many times I see these unfortunate crashes, they never get easier to witness.  Cars of all makes and models slammed into cement barriers.  Distressed victims standing next to their destroyed cars.  Emergency responders blaring their lights as they rush to get to the scene.  And those are, unfortunately, the lucky scenarios.  The unlucky ones result in a permanent loss and body bag.  

Besides the less than ideal road conditions, Highway 17 is also well known by all local observers for the speed at which cars travel, largely in part to its use case as one of the few routes for people in my community to drive to and from their jobs in the heart of Silicon Valley.  Despite the curves and crowds on the road, countless cars continue to speed through the road, endangering both themselves and others – a frightening fact I sincerely hope future driver education will change.

Driver education should go beyond teaching new drivers the correct signs, right of way system, and lane changes.  It should also educate prospective drivers about why speeding is never worth it.  Beyond simply passing permit and license tests, driving students and new drivers should be well versed in standard speed limits before they take to the road.  No work meeting, school class, or social event is ever worth the danger that comes along with rushing.  The few minutes we save when we start to speed can never compare to the dangerous potentials and to the accidents I witness regularly.  Everyone on the road, whether a driver or passenger, has their whole life ahead of them – a life filled with goals, joys, and beauty.  A careless, even selfish, choice to speed for any commitment can end all of it in a few quick seconds.  We need to think about the bigger picture, understanding that a life is far more important than our own personal time.  

As a young person looking to join the ranks of drivers on our community’s roads, I want to make a personal promise to myself to never speed or be in a car that does so.  Young people, one of the most at risk groups for driving accidents, often find themselves afraid to speak up in group settings, such as a couple friends carpooling in a speeding car together.  No matter how uncomfortable, I promise myself that I will always ask to go slower if I find myself in a speeding car, and hopefully others will too.

As the world modernizes and takes a faster pace than ever before, various commitments can fill up our schedules and need for timely arrivals, but overall these demands should never result in a choice to speed.  Speeding is the worst possible way we can ever deal with these demands and the very opposite of a solution.  Every person on the road deserves to be surrounded by responsible drivers with self awareness.  The moment we use a car, truck, motorcycle, or any other vehicle, we need to take a personal oath to do everything in our power to protect the mothers, fathers, cousins, goddaughters, friends, colleagues, grandmas, godsons, grandpas, daughters, mentors, sons, husbands, wives, brothers, confidantes, bosses, sisters, leaders, and more who also share the road with us.  We owe it to ourselves and others to responsibly control the intensity with which we hit the gas pedal.

I am incredibly fortunate to not have experienced an accident on Highway 17 despite driving more than 100 miles of it in any given week.  This privilege is thanks to both lucky blessings and the responsible driving on the part of everyone else whom I share the highway with.  To anyone who has ever taken Highway 17 in a safe, responsible manner and is reading this, from the bottom of my heart, I cannot thank you enough.  This privilege is one that I hope will become more widespread with increased driver education about the cautions against speeding.