Behind the Wheel

Behind
the Wheel

Hey!
What’s up? I wish I could properly introduce myself, but I have a
crucial story to tell. There we were cruising down the backroads of
my relatively rural town. On this particularly pleasant Friday
afternoon, the sun was bright, warm, and lucid. There was not a cloud
in the sky for as far as I could tell. Three of my friends and I were
on our way to a popular lake outside the city limits. As a group of
four 17-year-old teenagers would do, we were blasting the latest hits
from rappers like J. Cole and Blueface. The environment for
relaxation was not spontaneous. We had just submitted a hard week’s
worth of IB (International Baccalaureate) essays and were ready for a
stress-free weekend. So far, everything was working according to
plan. My best friend, Julian, had seen a funny meme about the roles
of each passenger on a road trip. We had all turned to see it and
were laughing heartily when the unexpected happened. The moment I
looked away from the road, the car began to drift into the oncoming
lane. I heard a horn and noticed that I was no longer in my lane.
Panicking, I jerked the wheel and we found ourselves headed off the
road. At this point, the car had begun to spin out. Eventually, I was
able to regain control and pull over at the side of the road, after
which everyone exited the car and either heaved whatever they had for
lunch or simply sat down, dazed with an expressionless stare. After
what felt like an hour, we regained our ability to talk with each
other, deciding that it was best to just head home. Now, almost a
year has passed, and it still surprises me how, within the blink of
an eye, a memorable moment with friends could have easily become a
tragedy. 

Luckily,
we escaped that outcome. However, this experience became an
eye-opener to the need for drivers to properly implement drivers’
education each and every time they go behind the wheel. Prior to that
event, I had been driving for more than a year. I had never been
pulled over or involved in an accident. In my teenage mentality, I
believed I was invincible. Oh, how wrong I was. Despite my
experience, there are others who endured something far worse. 

There
is only one resolution for these problems we face on the road:
implementation of drivers’ education. Drivers’ education is
important to reducing the number of deaths by driving because it
tries to teach all drivers how to be responsible when driving. By
understanding the rules and regulations that guide driving, drivers
are able to do two things that characterize a safe driver; they can
actively predict the actions of others and drive in a defensive
manner that steers them away from a dangerous situation. 

Concerning
my ideas for preserving a safe driving environment, I know I can
mention sci-fi measures that can be taken to reduce fatalities on the
roadway. I have previously thought about special sensors that alerted
nearby police when driving rules were not being followed, like
speeding or maintaining one’s lane. However, I now understand that,
A, that is very intrusive, and B, police might not always be near the
area. Realistically, I believe that the requirements needed to pass a
drivers’ ed course needs to be more stringent. When taking my final
exam to pass the course, I saw that it was a ten-question multiple
choice test. To pass, you needed to answer seven of them correctly.
The exam tested simple rules, rather than the more difficult ones. I
am not urging this idea out of spite for future drivers. I noticed
that teenagers get their licenses not because of a genuine individual
desire, but because it has been the norm and is convenient for them.
I have undertaken research as part of my IB History course that
pointed out that it is very difficult to acquire a drivers’ license
in Germany. The reason behind making it so stringent was to ensure
anyone that had the license genuinely desired it and was willing to
toil extensively in order to get it. This means that drivers in
Germany understand their responsibility as drivers, respect it
greatly, and implement it whenever they go behind the wheel. And this
idea has worked. Despite the German Autobahn’s reputation for
having exceptionally speedy drivers, they have a lower fatality rate
for every 100,000 people than the United States.

In
all, I understand how drivers’ education has worked to promote. If
all rules from drivers’ ed were followed, life on the road would be
a utopia. However, humans are not perfect. As much as we don’t want
to admit it, we all err one way or another, sometimes while driving.
However, if action is taken to promote the influence of our drivers’
education on drivers, we will be doing our own bit to ensure that all
generations of drivers, present or future, can be safe behind the
wheel.