The Miseducation of Modern Drivers

Driving is the most commonly underestimated thing in our modern society. Human beings have been striving for the most convenient way of life ever since their creation. With these conveniences, there are opportunities for them to contradict one another. Driving and texting, or just on your phone in general is one of the main problems that modern drivers are struggling to deal with. Driving education is the most important thing in this world because of all of the influences that children see from their parents driving. The teens of today will grow to have children and carry those same habits they have over to their children. There is one thing that can stop a deadly cycle from being created and that is driving education.

The education system does not provide enough support to show teens how unsafe driving can be. I was going through a rough part of my life in the last two months of 2023. I felt like if I crashed my car and went up in flames no one would care about me. I would be a story on the news for a weekend then nothing else would be spoken about me except for people mentioning the stupid kid who got himself killed on a Kentucky backroad in the middle of the night. Until one night, when my wish I was accidentally wishing for came true. It was a night after some storms had come by earlier in the day. I was speeding home as per usual almost tempting death to strike me because of how much I didn’t care. I took a turn that was almost my last. I hydroplaned then overcorrected which caused me to spin off the other side of the road and land in a field. If I landed 6 inches to my right I would have flipped my car down a 50-foot incline. Attending the Alive at 25 class at my high school helped me get a grip and realize how destructive my behavior had been.

Driving is not hard. Safe driving can be difficult. It’s amazing how adding one that one word can make all the difference. Next time you have a conversation with someone you know ask them “Can you drive?”. They’ll probably answer “Yeah” or “For sure”, but the real question you should ask is “Can you drive safely?’. That one word can change the whole mood of the conversation. I hope for a time (preferably sooner than later) where that one word doesn’t change the mood of the conversation, or even be brought up at all. The word “safety” changes how people think about something. The safest way and the most convenient rarely collide together beneficially.

There are several ways that we can reduce driving fatalities. It starts with simple things like putting on your seatbelt and putting down your phone. People don’t see a problem with being on their phones but the distance you can travel in a car in the amount of time to check your phone is baffling. You can travel an entire football field in the time it takes for you to pick up your phone read a text and then comprehend it. For iPhone users, there is an answer( I don’t know about Samsung or Android I only have Apple) there is a focus in your settings to turn on when you are driving it stops your notifications and lets you charge your phone while not having it. Enforcing safe driving behaviors is an option. With new safe driving laws being created every day. If more laws are passed a safer future can be created and fewer people would die because of these unsafe behaviors.

I spoke earlier in the essay about my own experience in a car accident that luckily wasn’t fatal. This story doesn’t have the same outcome. I never got to meet my grandfather, my biological one that is. Robert Jones of Taylor County Kentucky was 17 years old when he died in a Drag racing accident. My dad never got to meet his father. Unsafe driving cost my dad a childhood and cost me the chance to meet my biological grandfather. My grandpa probably wasn’t thinking about his death that night. One second he was with us the next his car was split in half by a guard rail. Driving education is important because it saves lives. Driving instructors might as well be wearing a cape and spandex because theft are real-life superheroes. Being caught up in the convenience and fast-paced action of this world is very common and something that you don’t even realize. Next time you’re driving and are on the phone remember, that text can be your final words.