Importance of Driver’s Education to Prevent Trauma and Pain

Driving is the one thing that many people do and it becomes everyone’s goal at 16 to receive their permit and when they turn 17 to officially gain their license. On average 255 million people drive in the United States everyday, 94.5% of those drivers being 16 and older according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. One thing that everyone has to do when first receiving that permit is have their parents teach them how to properly and safely operate a car. It is a long and tedious process but it is so essential that classes are provided.These classes are so important to driving safety because it can get very scary in certain conditions and being properly taught how to drive in those conditions can be so essential to ensure safe travels to and from your destination.

Not everyone drives safely, especially in this day and age where everyone is distracted with technology. According to the NHTSA, 26% of all accidents to be more exact 1 million accidents are a result of distracted driving. These classes can also help people understand the impact of these accidents. Another issue that can lead to many accidents are high speed police chases that can end up fatal for a driver that had nothing to do with the chase. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatal crashes involving police pursuits kill more than one person every day; 525 people were killed in 2021, and 545 were killed in 2020. According to Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) data from 2009 to 2013, 21 percent of those seriously injured in police pursuits are individuals not involved in the pursuit. These classes can also help people manage with trauma that came as a result of being a victim of a chase.

The steps that can be taken to reduce the number of automobile accidents are mandating classes for people who have a DUI on their record to make sure that they do not do anything like driving while drunk or high because that could lead to a fatal accident. Even though police officers have to train to drive while on the job, there need to be classes that can introduce different ways to drive during a high speed chase so that another civilian is injured because of those chases. We need to make sure that there are background checks on anyone who was recently imprisoned for vehicular manslaughter to ensure that they do not have the tendencies to commit a crime with a car. These may seem like extreme cases but this is some ideas on how to ensure safety on any road, intersection, or highway. It could save families from trauma, it can save lives, and it can make people feel more confident in the fact that they are guaranteed safety while they are driving.

Unfortunately, I have witnessed trauma that comes from accidents. The first time I ever saw trauma caused from an accident was with my mother. When she was seventeen she was sitting in the backseat of her friend’s car when she got into an accident. Her friend was trying to light a cigarette of all things. While in the process she told the individual in the passenger seat tol hold the steering wheel. The passenger jerks the wheel and the car flipped 2 times stopping in a ditch. Immediately, after the vehicle stopped on its top my mother immediately crawled out of the vehicle. She did so because she had a fear of the car catching fire. She began running from house to house looking for help, leaving a trail of blood behind her. At this point my mother was not aware of the full extent of her injuries.

Ultimately, this resulted in her having to go to the hospital. After arriving at the hospital, she became aware of the injuries she had sustained. She had an 8 in gash on her right hand that had to be surgically repaired. She had road burn on her back which is still visible to this day, a scrape on her left cheek. She had minor cuts on her face and ear from glass. She had two gashes on her arm that had asphalt and rocks in them. She had to learn how to live with her new scars. She was different now and she had to learn to live with the new her.It took a long time because she was ashamed of her scars. Fortunately, she has now become comfortable with them. However, trusting other people behind the wheel is still something she struggles with in present time. The scars are still very visible and it has even had an impact on me. I say that it had an impact on me because I have been wanting to drive for a very long time and my dad works a lot so I try to ask my mom and she gets very anxious. I had to soon realize that my mom is still trying to learn how to trust other people driving because you can never be sure about how people drive.

In addition, another incident that resulted in the death of my cousin was a high speed chase. My cousin had recently been planning on her baby shower and her birthday was coming up. On the week of her birthday she was driving and there was a high speed chase that she had nothing to do with and she was hit by a police car that was on duty somewhere else and responded to the call. She ended up being trapped in the car for a long time and passed on the way to the hospital. It really isn’t a clear recall on everything that happened because that was supposed to be the most exciting week of her life and it ended up being very tragic. It was hard and I really lost trust in police after that because it made me ask so many questions, “why her, why now?”, “why didn’t the officer try another method like using the spikes?”We had so many questions and not a single answer in sight. It made it a really hard time for me because I felt useless. I couldn’t bring comfort to my hurting grandmother, her daughter, my aunts, my uncle, and my mother. I was struggling mentally but soon realized that this was another lesson on being sure that you are always driving safely.

Some steps that I take to ensure safety while I am driving are following all road rules. I always make sure everything in my vehicle is properly functioning before going on the road because being in a faulty vehicle can result in a fatal accident. I will always make sure I put my phone on driving mode, this is so I can be able to drive safely and undistracted. These may seem like little steps that everyone may follow, but coming from my experiences there are major ways that can ensure that I won’t cause any trauma and pain to my family and friends. That is also why classes are so important because these parts can be displayed with higher explanation and prevent lots of accidents and help may people prevent pain and trauma to their families.