Spare A Life

Before I got behind the driver’s wheel for the first time, my dad would always stress the importance of knowing that I am not the only person on, or near, the road. Each day he would send me an article of reckless and careless driving accidents that led to horrible results to steer me away from even thinking about adopting the characteristics of a carless driver. He would take me to “drive” but would make me drive around the parking lot for a few minutes then “stop” and sit behind the wheel for 5 minutes at a time to just stare out the windshield to make sure I wouldn’t glance away or reach for the radio. He wanted to show me that as boring as driving is, I must always be focused and aware as to what I am doing when operating a vehicle.

During my driver education class, which I took online, my parents encouraged me to reread each unit at least twice, that way I can really understand the importance of each task- and I am thankful they did that. Driver education has taught me things that being a passenger never would have. The intricate lessons on situational driving and the importance of being fully alert while in the driver’s seat really showed me that operating a car is at the top of the danger list. I think that the part of my driver’s education lesson that stuck with me the most was the real-life interviews of parents and loved ones talking about the heartbreaking outcomes on how distracted driving either killed their kids or impaired them forever. These videos were both extremely sad but also eye opening for an incoming driver like me. Seeing firsthand experiences with such deep consequences has completely altered my outlook on driving even more than it did when I was just a passenger. To me, driver education has instilled in my brain the dangers of driving while simultaneously helping me eliminate myself as a danger on the roads. As a teenager now, I think driver education showed me the start to finish process of why driving is dangerous and has absolutely scared me of ever thinking about driving in any disoriented and distracted state. The education behind driving is much more than just learning how to drive; it’s also a lesson to students that driving is an intricate task that can carry larger faults then benefits if abused.

Driver deaths have gone up rapidly each year, and I believe that this is mostly because of societal pressures to constantly be completing tasks like; responding to emails, calling your friends, or listening to voicemails. As I stated earlier, when people drive, they’re bored, and unfortunately, many people don’t like to be bored-especially if they can be checking tasks off their to do lists. After talking to many of my peers and colleagues, they stated that when they drive, they think that they can easily get little side tasks out of the way because of this little in-between time they have from getting to one point to another. Many of them stated that they respond to texts or emails when they’re either at a red light or a low-speed limit area, so they won’t have to do it when they get home. One of my mentors even joined our zoom call while he was driving even though he could have easily rescheduled it to when he was free at a later period. All these distractions can be root causes as to why people swerve off the road or into the other lane, therefore causing an accident. I think that the best step that car manufacturers can implement into cars is not allowing the use of any cellular devices in cars one they are in drive mode. We all want to relax when we get home, but sparing a life is more important than calling your friend back.

While I thankfully have never been involved in a car accident, my peers from high school unfortunately were. I was a senior in high school when I got news that three girls from my class had been driving recklessly and proceeded to crash into a tree off a large bend. The driver was going extremely over the speed limit and while she was changing the music, she was turning a bend where she couldn’t slowdown in time and ended up totaling her car after she hit a large landscaping stone and flew into a nearby tree. Her car being totaled wasn’t even the biggest problem, the poor girl had to be airlifted to a hospital due to the severity of her injuries where she later got her leg amputated. The road on which the accident happened was a road I take almost every week, and shortly after the accident, the tree was completely cut down as a warning to passing drivers in the area. Now, the driver most likely won’t ever be able to drive again, making her past mistake something she will have to carry with her for the rest of her life.

As an avid driver myself, I practice safe driving by placing my phone on do not disturb while operating my car as well as only allowing my music to be up half of what it can go to. Whenever I drive with my friends or family, I usually suggest that they do the same or I offer to hold their phone for them, so they don’t tend to reach for it during their drive. I have also showed many of my friends the heartbreaking videos that were shown in my drivers ed class to show them that the effects of bad driving last forever, just like my classmates will. Overall, we must all remember that driving is a privilege that can be taken away from us at any point in time if we don’t do it correctly and follow the rules-so drive mindfully and spare a life.