Vomit is the Least of Our Worries

My driving education class scared me half to death. No one warned me that I would be throwing up after seeing dead bodies still in the cars or in the morgue covered with sheets. Right afterward, I thought, “Why would instructors ever be allowed to show us this without warning?” I was disgusted and thought there could’ve been a better way to teach these lessons. However, once I thought about it more, I realized that teenagers tend to not like listening, and I know that is a huge generalization and stereotype, but there is some weight to it. So go ahead. Scare the new drivers. Terrify them so they know they better be careful.

The video I was shown was supposed to scare new drivers by showing what could happen if you drove irresponsibly or broke any laws like speeding, driving under the influence, etc. It was a part of this shockumentary-style series called Red Asphalt. This series was filmed by the California Highway Patrol to be used in driver education classes, specifically in California. Therefore, in Massachusetts, where I am from, and other states, it isn’t mandatory for driving schools to show it. It is up to the instructor and driving school’s discretion.

What is horrifying about these videos is that all of these accidents did occur in real life. Every graphic little detail is one hundred percent real. A part of Red Asphalt includes police body-camera footage of inspections of accidents that had just occurred. Bodies would still be in the cars, and the cameras showed them in gruesome detail. Each person who died in these vehicles was killed because they had been driving under the influence, being driven by someone under the influence, hadn’t been wearing their seatbelt, or made another mistake behind the wheel.

Although I genuinely threw up and nearly passed out after watching one of these videos, every driving school should be required to have their students watch at least one video from Red Asphalt. If I knew I would be forced to watch this, I probably would have tried to find a way out of doing so. Yet, I think it is necessary to scare teenagers into realizing they cannot be idiots when driving. Learning how close to death drivers can be is how I consider driver education effectively reduces the number of deaths from driving. If teenagers believe they are smarter and don’t want to listen to their instructors tell them this plainly, just scare the living daylights out of them with actual video footage.

Partially for the above reason, my driver education was crucial in teaching me how to be responsible on the road. I already knew a lot of the road signs and rules, such as right on red or the right of way, but driving isn’t just about the rules. It is about reacting as well. You have to learn to respond to certain situations accordingly, including if someone is driving recklessly or in extreme weather conditions. Defensive driving helps to drive safely during these situations, but parts of this method aren’t always common sense to people. Some individuals don’t naturally have the best observation skills or can even pick up on signals of aggressive driving from others on the road. Hence, if someone wasn’t taught defensive driving, they might not be equipped to drive safely in difficult circumstances.

So not only is driver education important to show driving techniques and skills every driver should be able to understand and implement, but it also helps to engrave fear into drivers about what could happen if they weren’t safe. While some may argue that scaring drivers will make them never go on the road and avoid driving altogether, I believe they should be scared. Driving is terrifying. Controlling this heavy vehicle alongside all these other vehicles going at speeds up to five or six times faster than the fastest human can run should be terrifying. Your life is at risk. Everyone’s lives are at risk. In a single second, you can lose your life if you are not careful.

When people drive recklessly, under the influence, or without a seatbelt, that is because they are no longer scared. They think they can handle everything just fine and that their life isn’t in any danger. And that is where the mistakes come in. Without a fear of what driving could result in, people don’t care what happens. While I have never been in a car accident, there was an infamous accident in my town just a few weeks ago where a teenager, just a year older than me, died. There were seven teens in the car with only half having their seatbelts on. The driver was also rumored to have been under the influence. For me, it is hard to swallow that one of them was in my driver education class. She sat right next to me, and she could have died alongside the other teenager. Yet, because the passengers and drivers weren’t being safe, one lost their life.

If driver education can not only teach drivers to be able to drive defensively and according to the rules of the road but also include the gruesome details of what happens if you don’t do so, it could shape how everyone drives. Having these resources online for less money also helps increase the number of people who can take driver education courses, making the road much safer. That is the goal of these courses: to make people drive safely so no more lives are lost.

In conclusion, the best way to reduce the number of deaths by driving is through driver education, which most people have the ability to take, either online or in person. These courses are best when they include the rules and regulations of the road alongside first hand accounts and stories of people who were in accidents and those who died from them. Just maybe put a trigger warning and, for in-person classes, get some buckets or vomit bags.