Dead Right

Dead
Right

Aysel
Tremblay

I have taken
the drivers ed course, known as Joshua’s law, required in my
state. I have a mom who pays attention, instructs me to “drive
safe” every time I leave the house and who has installed a monitor
in my car. This monitor tracks my top speed, my average speed, my
hard accels, and my hard brakes. We review my trips and talk about
the seriousness of driving safely, the number of deaths caused by
reckless and inattentive driving, speeding and carelessness.

I’m a
teenager. Do I think it applies to me? Do I believe that close calls
are my fault? Do I believe that the minor accidents I have had
indicate a lack of attention or bad driving habits? The short answer
is No. I believe I’m in complete control and infallible. I might
not consider the consequences of how one wrong move by me or someone
else could end in tragedy or that, in reality, I’m in control of a
2 to 3 ton weapon without any regard for its’ power.

That’s the
typical teenager whose social life is more important than any road or
traffic condition. That missing a snap, a text or email could be life
altering and unconscionable. Teenager’s priorities are misplaced
and their view of responsible behavior is narcissistic.

High Schools
used to offer drivers ed classes and treated this massive
responsibility and requirement for forced education as a priority. At
least at my school, this is no longer offered. In order to take a
drivers ed class, you have to private pay and it’s costly. A
lot of teen drivers cannot afford it and wait until they are of age
to be excused from the requirement thus putting a lot of uneducated
teenaged drivers on the road.

The truth is
that most accidents are caused by teen drivers, and most teen deaths
are caused by preventable car accidents. Education is key and should
be taken seriously at the high school level. Parental involvement is
necessary and consequences for poor driving habits should be severe…
it could be the difference between life and death.

I lost a
friend to a car accident. He was 17 and had his whole life cut short
in an instance. This was a tragic reminder that we are not
infallible. My mom has a saying that has stuck with me and I carry
with me as I drive: “when it comes to making the right driving
choices, give way even when you have the right of way, keep your
distance, mind the speed limits and pay attention to traffic and road
conditions. You don’t want to enforce being in the right, because,
it could mean being dead right.”