The First Time

I remember it was sunny, the light filtering through the car window was bothering me. I remember how my dad kept complaining about a car in front of us. I remember how time felt slower, watching the car go into the ditch. Flipping, twirling through the air like a ballerina. The sound of it crunching upside down was almost delayed, as if my brain didn’t want to accept the visual in front of me. That was the first car crash I remember witnessing. Hearing stories through my State Trooper father, classmates, friends: you never think it will happen to you. Until it does. While no one was injured in that accident, I would later in life see others around me face the trials of safety behind the wheel. Your hands on the wheel dictate how your life could be altered within a matter of seconds, as well as the lives of others.

Educating yourself, as well as other drivers is one of the first steps in creating a safer world for everyone. Being within a younger generation, you often hear about the lack of seriousness associated with driving. Addressing this lack of seriousness is one of the first steps that could create a reduction in driving deaths, and create more education towards a topic that demands seriousness. One example that comes to mind is when a group of boys from my high school were involved in an accident. The car not only flipped over multiple times, but it was crushed severely due to the impact of flipping. The car was going highly over the speed limit, and no one was wearing seatbelts. Miraculously, all walked away with only minor injuries. This accident not only spread like wildfire throughout the school on social media, but it spread in an almost comedic way. People for days were laughing, making jokes, and making comments on how “funny” the situation was. This lack of understanding towards the severity of the situation made me sick, and I believe is something that needs to be addressed in order to create that better understanding of driver safety and education.

Cost of driver education is another large issue that the younger generation faces within creating safer and more educated drivers. While my high school was able to provide a driving school during after school hours, the cost to sign up for classes was extremely high. Though the high cost may have not been an issue for some students, for my family, it was extremely difficult. Fortunately, my father works as an Indiana State Trooper, and has years of experience working on roads all throughout Indiana. Unfortunately, not everyone within my high school had access to a family member who worked a job that involved being on the road as frequently as my father is. If the cost was perhaps much lower for these important classes, accessibility would become much easier for those who cannot afford the high price of driver education. This would provide a stepping stone towards education that all students could access within the school, without fear of cost or affordability.

Decisions that you make when getting behind the wheel are, in my opinion, the most important part when it comes to bringing safer and more educated drivers. These life-altering decisions always occur after important life events. Things like prom, graduation parties, that first college party, etc. While important discussions exist when it comes to making choices behind the wheel after these events, the connection is sometimes difficult for the younger generation to make. After doing research of my own, the most common age range involved in death by car accident was those within a younger range. Creating a more in-depth and real discussion could allow for that better connection between driver education and the younger generation. My high school was able to create a demonstration each year of the consequences of making bad decisions after prom, allowing for that reality of how important it is to be safe and educated behind the wheel. Giving that real discussion to all schools could not only save lives, but it could reduce the amount of chairs that become empty in classrooms all throughout the country due to car crash fatalities.

Overall, creating more accessible, serious, and discussed education is important to the future of safer drivers. Better drivers do not only come from education though, as they should first begin within yourself. For me, I know continuously educating myself on how I myself can be safer will always be the first step in becoming a better driver. I also know I can educate those around me more in the future, specifically on the seriousness and decisions made behind the wheel. Now, as a college student, I witness more unsafe driving than I ever have. It was only weeks ago that someone had to pull me out of the way from being hit head on due to someone else’s choices and unsafe driving. While this wasn’t my first time experiencing unsafe driving, I hope with moves towards more serious, accessible, and discussed driver education, that first time will become the last time.