A Safe Driver Isn’t Selfish

I leaned my head back against the headrest, staring dead-eyed at the red light in front of me. I hadn’t had my license for long, but I had already come to dread waiting at red lights. My left turn blinker clicked in rhythmic recession as I turned up my music, allowing its sound to distract me from my impatience. I hummed along, tapping my finger against the steering wheel. I continuously glanced at the light, waiting for it to turn green. I didn’t see why the wait had to be so long, when the oncoming traffic was sparse and I could easily turn onto the empty street. After an agonizing minute or two longer, the light flickered to a green glow. I pressed my foot on the gas pedal, tugging my car into a tight left turn.

Suddenly, instinct told me I had made a mistake. I remembered that this particular street was two-way, and I was supposed to yield on green before I turned. Still being a new driver, I didn’t remember all the rules of the road yet. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and swerving my head to the right I saw a brown suburban some feet away, and approaching fast. My own cold fear was reflected in the eyes of the lady driving the suburban. Without thinking, I slammed my foot onto the gas, praying I’d escape quickly enough to come out of this mistake unscathed.

By pure glorious chance, we just missed each other. She sped off down the road, and I slid onto the road, turning into my driveway then, my body shaking violently. This was the first time I had very nearly died in a car accident that I could remember. What was worse was I realized I could have been the cause of my own and someone else’s death, or detrimental injury. I had before seen driving as an easy action, that everything just went smoothly. I never believed I could get into something as horrible as a wreck.

But these things happen in mere seconds. They can change you in a moment, even if you aren’t hurt. I know from experience that you can spend hours afterward in complete shock, and it takes forever to get over the guilt of almost hurting someone else as well as yourself.

Of course, I’m not saying after that moment I never made a mistake while driving ever again. We all make mistakes in life. Things don’t always go as planned, and circumstances aren’t always ideal. Driving is something that leaves a lot of room for mistakes. But unlike many mistakes, mistakes while driving don’t just impact yourself. So no, there is no such thing as a completely perfect driver. Everyone has bad days where we could slip up, but we need to realize that we can’t brush that off. The consequences are too big for us to brush off careless driving as “normal” or unimportant.

I also know from experience how a lot of people today consider careless driving or driving with reckless abandon as admirable. We all know that guy who sticks his leg out the window while he’s driving, blasting his music for all the world to hear. We tend to think of these people as ultra-confident and carefree. But really they’re setting an example that we can ease on our safety precautions while driving. We don’t have to use seatbelts or stop signs or turn signals. Because looking like we have everything so much under control that we don’t need these things is more important to us.

How has it come to be that we believe cautious drivers are somehow laughable or cowardly? I’ve had friends who teased me for being nervous on the road, especially when I was carpooling. But knowing I am somewhat in control of others’ safety puts me on edge, and rightfully so. I feel protective of them and of course want them to leave my car at the end of the day without any sign of harm. Why is this something that many of us consider to mean we are weak?

I believe that one of the main things we need to focus on in order to reduce the numbers of deaths caused by vehicular accidents is to care. We need to understand that it isn’t “cool” to only look out for yourself on the road. We all live on a time crunch and want to be places as quickly as possible, but does that give us a reason to cut violently into traffic, barely giving the car behind us enough time to slam on their brakes? Does that give us permission to speed down the highway, dodging around and through the cars who abide by the speed limit but are going too slow for us? Selfish drivers are the main cause of wrecks. We consider our time of more importance than staying alert and watching out for others on the road.

We must start remembering that when we sit in the driver’s seat, we’re now not just responsible for the safety of our own lives, but for those in the car with us, or on the road around us. We hold the power to save or to destroy in seconds, simply by placing our hands on the wheel and putting the gear into drive. Just because vehicles have become commonplace, doesn’t mean they’ve lost their potential to cause harm. We can’t allow our awareness of a driver’s ultimate task to slip from our minds. If we start doing that, I believe we can all do our part in making the roads safe and more stress-free, and help keep more precious lives from being harmed in any way, shape or form. This world has so many struggles. It’s only right that we do what we can to cut down the ones we’re perfectly capable of preventing.