Learning Drivers Ed Lessons from Real Life Events

While I have been fortunate to avoid an accident in my first two years of driving, some of my family members have not been as fortunate. My brother, Ty was able to walk away from his accident. However, my uncle Adam, who was only 38 years old at the time, did not.

Ty was on his way to work. He is the type of person who leaves for work an hour early, even though it only takes him 20-30 minutes to get there. I do not think he had ever been late to work in the three years he had worked. Time got away from him that day and he knew that he was cutting it very close to make it on time.

Ty took a route that he normally would not take because he thought it would be faster. This road was a narrow, curvy, country “back road”. Because he was late, he was speeding. He took a curve, much faster than he should have and crossed into the middle of the road. Around the curve, in the other lane, was a farmer on a tractor pulling a bush hog. The farmer said that because he was sitting high up on the tractor, he could see Ty coming, and he could tell Ty was traveling too fast to make the curve in the correct lane. The farmer swerved into the grass on the right side but could not get fully out of the way. Ty sideswiped the bush hog.

We are so lucky that the farmer saw Ty coming and could get over as much as he did. Otherwise, they both may have been severely injured or worse. There are multiple lessons that we can learn with this accident. First, always allow extra time when traveling so that you can go the speed limit. Second, be extra cautious and slow when traveling on roads that are not familiar to you.

The saddest story that I am going to share is the one about my uncle, Adam. I was just two when he passed and I only remember him from the pictures I have of us together, but my Mother has shared this story with me. Adam had been the single father, sole provider to his middle school son for six years. He was a kitchen manager at a chain steak house in a city thirty miles from his home.

He was scheduled to work but woke up sick that morning and tried to call in. The store manager encouraged him to come on in to work because they were expecting the food delivery for the week and they needed his expertise in handling the shipment. When he got to work, he could barely keep his head up and it was evident to the store manager that he should not be there so he allowed him to leave.

Adam was driving the thirty miles back home when he briefly went off the right side of the road. We do not know why but can only assume that he was either distracted by his phone or may have nodded off. We do know from the markings on both sides of the road that he over corrected and ended up going off the opposite side of the road, flipping the vehicle and landing upside down in a ravene. No one saw the accident and it happened in a rural area, so he was not found for several hours. By the time he was found, he had passed.

Unfortunately, Adam’s middle school aged son lost his last parent because he chose to drive himself home when he did not feel well. The lesson for others is to ask for help and get a ride from someone else. Adam was sick, but the same could happen when someone is driving drowsy. It is not worth losing a life to try to keep driving yourself. If you cannot get a ride from someone else, it is better to pull over to a safe place and take a nap. It can be tempting to push through, but please do not!

Teenagers like myself do not always think about consequences. We are not always patient and feel as if “It will not happen to us”. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving fatalities occur at higher rates between the ages of 16-19 than any other age group. I believe that mandating driver’s education for those who are new drivers would be a smart decision.

Driver’s education should be a combination of driving skills practice and education about the consequences of wrong choices. One of the most impactful ways to educate teens like me, is through sharing stories like the ones I shared. Bringing young drivers in who were injured or are now in wheelchairs, may help us to realize that these things do happen to us. Allowing the relatives, girlfriends or boyfriends of those who have passed away to speak to those in driver’s education may allow us to see these stories through the eyes of those left behind and affected by the poor decisions.

Driver’s education is optional where I live and I am not sure why. I was not required to take it, but I wish I had that opportunity. I believe that everyone who plans to get a license or who has recently received his or her license should attend. I believe that lives would be saved if everyone took driver’s education.