What Kills?

What comes to mind when asked, “What kills?” Do you take that figuratively and say, “My nine-to-five job” or “my head”? Is it taken literally and you quote statistics about gun violence, drugs or neglect? According to the Department of Transportation, in 2011 there were a total of 2,362,000 individuals injured in direct relation to motor vehicle accidents. On top of that figure there were 33,561 individuals killed. 33,561 people who won’t return home and have loved ones to leave behind. Being educated on the rules of the road and how to conduct yourself courteously and graciously beside other motorists is the key to arriving safely to your destination every time; especially after a national average of 2,968,815,000,000 miles traveled.

Driver’s education in high school is an exciting time. It’s a time when young adults are hitting the asphalt for the first time in pursuit of individualism in their lives. To drive is to have your own plans, friends and ultimately your own life. Driver’s Education is approached as a mundane tunnel to travel through to make it out the other end so you can finally achieve your own identity. What does Driver’s Education really teach and is it really that important? I’m here to say it’s exceptionally important and contributes to the rest of your driving life. It sets the ground rules and standards for conducting yourself safely on the roadways nationally (and even internationally). So what’s learned? In Driver’s Education, you learn the importance of defensive driving, traffic signals and lights and ultimately the consequences of risky driving (the ultimate consequence even being death). Ultimately, you learn the techniques and strategies to answer this question: “What can be done?”

We all love “quick fixes”. Who doesn’t love a bippity-boppity-boo solution to something as critical as distracted driving? The University of Iowa has studied one of our beloved fixes and what they have to say is uncomplicated and unencumbered by complicated processes or effort. It’s as simple as this: don’t talk or text on your phone while operating a motor vehicle. Most of us believe that the seconds it takes us to send a text or answer a call is inconsequential to our attention span and won’t affect our driving. The University of Iowa conducted a study that shows in order to disengage from one action to engage in another is about 40 milliseconds. This time compounds with stacking tasks that will eventually stack to full seconds to switch your attention from one action to another. Under the best driving conditions, it only takes seconds of your diverted attention to miss critical data about the road in front of you to end up upside down, turned around and/or unconscious because of a car accident. According to statistics compiled by the CDC from the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development stated that approximately 90 people die on our roads each day which, is unacceptable “especially when we know what works to prevent crashes, injuries and death.” While everyone wants magic formulas and speedy remedies, common sense prevails as the best solutions are what we already know. Things like utilizing seat belts in both the front and back of vehicles, properly using car/booster seats for children at least through the age of eight, never driving while drunk, under the influence, or drowsy, obeying speed limits and eliminating distracted driving. While the solution isn’t glamorous, the statistics show that getting around safely isn’t only for the psychics and supernaturally enabled… It’s for all those that prioritize safety for themselves and others. One innocent morning, even I failed to do this for myself. Saving lives as an EMT in the ER is very taxing… Especially when it’s done twelve hours through the night from 7:00pm-7:00am. After working exclusively night shifts for three years, I thought myself immune to the consequences of drowsy driving. I had a system. This system consisted of rolling the windows down, eating a snack (usually breakfast) and cranking up the music, and this had served me well all three years. It only takes one moment to make or break what you thought worked so well. This shift had been particularly taxing as this was during the height of COVID-19 and it seemed every shift would never end. Throughout the shift I would take cat naps in our military style screening tents in an attempt to rekindle what little sanity I had left. Finally, the shift was over, and I began my commute home. On my forty-five-minute drive, I had all the usual interventions in effect working in tandem to keep my eyes open and it simply was not working. Unknown to me, a red light was quickly approaching, and my eyes were fuzzy and unfocused pools just fading into black. Call it divine intervention, but at the last moment before impact, my eyes snapped open to reveal a white Toyota Corolla sitting at a red light with a sleeping EMT barreling straight for it. I slammed on my brakes and this Toyota began pulling away from the now green light and what could have resulted in me in his front seat, was a mild fender bender. I wouldn’t be going to sleep for the next couple hours as my adrenaline was so high, I could have worked yet another twelve-hour shift. With the exchanging of insurance information and the sincerest of apologies, we parted ways, and I vowed to always pull over if sleep was imminent. I save lives in the ER, and mine almost had to be saved. Could I have been more prepared or done anything differently? Absolutely. This would not happen again. .

Ultimately, the foundations of driver’s education inform us of the most effective techniques to be the most prepared on the road. Limiting distractions, driving defensively, not driving drowsy or under the influence and using seatbelts are some of the best proven techniques to make it to your destination.. Everyone wants to make it home and everyone has the tools to arrive safely. Driver’s Education is not to be taken lightly, so let us make sure to get back in one piece.