A blink of an eye

A Blink Of An Eye 

Life is so precious, but it can be taken away within the blink of an eye. Drivers education is one of the keys to helping our younger generation be well informed before receiving their driver’s license. In drivers education you learn things from traffic laws and a lot of defensive driving skills. One of the most important skills you learn is to be aware of your surroundings so you can make quick maneuvers whenever there is danger on the road. We also learn traffic laws that regards to pedestrians, bikers, emergency vehicles and other laws that must be followed when there are emergency situations happen on the road. Now when I think back when I was in high school they unfortunately stopped providing in school drivers education. Now as I’ve gotten older I really wish that more communities were able to give this class more opportunity to educate the younger generation. Or if they could have spent more time to plan more fundraising for this essential resource for kids, I think it would greatly benefit the students in the Colorado area. By making this class mandatory for all high school students I think this would be the most beneficial way to give this essential education to everyone and not only those who can pay outside of school to get this extra education. Everyone deserves to have an opportunity to be self-sufficient and be able to have access to a fair education provided to them at a young age. 

Today we have the most distractions on the road ever. We could be running late to work so you’re still eating or applying makeup in the morning. We could be distracted with responding to friends or families text messages, or one of the worst distractions is driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The US department of transportation national highway traffic safety administration has published that in the year 2024 they projected that 39,345 people died in traffic crashes and they have stated that even though that there is a decrease of about 3.8% compared to 40,901 fatalities reported in 2023 that these numbers have been high since 2021. These numbers have been fluctuating between roughly 44,000 to 40,000 in fatalities in the US between 2021-2023 according to their final 2023 fatality analysis reporting system data. These numbers are too high, and we must act before the unthinkable happens to your family and we are left with the questions “what could we have done better?” “Could they still be here if…” we cannot wait before death is knocking too close to home, we must educate and hold each other accountable so we are able to grow old with all our loved ones as we are supposed to. If we as a community go to our public-school boards and make sure that driver education is still provided in high schools and is mandatory, I believe that these numbers would decrease significantly.

In 2017 I was involved in a very traumatic car accident that could have ended a lot worse for me if I didn’t remember to put on my seat belt.  I was traveling on the highway to go visit a friend and noticed within a minute or two that I was driving without my seat belt. As I came to a stoplight, I immediately put my seat belt on thinking that that was a close one but not only five minutes later, I will be traveling on the highway going 50 mph when I saw large SUV slowing down, but I knew she was distracted cause I could see the blue light reflecting from her cell phone. There was hesitation in her stopping the vehicle before she tried to speed through a left hand turn across highway traffic.  She hit me head on and I couldn’t do anything within those couple of seconds besides blare my horn and all I could remember was seeing white everywhere. As I regained consciousness, I could hear ringing in both my ears as if a grenade had exploded near me. My adrenaline started to wear off, the pain started to settle in, and I could not move a muscle without crying in pain. However, I was not alone luckily there was an older couple that saw the accident happen and they pulled over to help me and call for emergency services. The husband was a retired officer, and his wife was a retired nurse. To this day whenever I share this story at the time I was not very religious, but I tell everyone that something’s out there if it was my guardian angel or something, they definitely were looking out for me and that it was not my time to leave this earth yet. With the story, I am able to talk to the younger generation and tell them the importance of always looking around your surroundings and putting your seatbelt on when you drive, even if it’s a short trip down the block because you never know when something out of your control is going to happen. I always tell my friends and family to also not be on their phones like the girl who hit me, that a few seconds can lead to a life-changing moment on the road. All text messages can wait because nothing matters more than your loved one’s safety.  

Making drivers education mandatory for all high schools is an important first step, the next would be family connection and accountability. Parents and older adults in the family have a duty to show and guide the younger generation to create a better community for the future. Parents number one desire for their children is to leave them in a better and safer world than they were brought into. If we have deep conversations about what it really means to get behind the wheel and the risks it comes with it, we should be able to hold all of our loved ones accountable for their actions. It takes less than three seconds for car accident to occur, just like my head-on collision. By reflecting each day on your driving habits or the trips you took that day with either yourself or another loved one, together you will able to take a step back and see if there were any ways to improve your driving but to also have a loved one listen and give their opinion on your driving that day. I will always remind my friends and loved ones that in a blink of an eye someone’s life can change, including their entire family’s lives as well. We can all do better for this world.