The Importance of Mistakes

The Importance of Mistakes

Driver education is crucial in reducing the number of deaths on the road. Everyone starts their driving experience knowing nothing. They slowly learn the rules of the road by watching others drive before they take on the responsibility themselves. Even when people aren’t aware of it, every time they get in a vehicle, they are taking in information about driving and rules of the road. Then when a young adult reaches driving age, they have to go through a formal driver’s education. The more coaching a driver has, the more they can learn about driving safely. More training means fewer accidents and fewer deaths.

If we as a society want to reduce the number of deaths on the road, we need to increase the quality of education for our drivers. One step is to take bad drivers off the road before they cause accidents. We need to reform the people who are making mistakes. Instead of just giving them a ticket and sending them on their way, there should be more education on the importance of safe driving each time a mistake happens. Other people are emulating the misjudgment of other drivers. If we surround our young drivers with faultless drivers, they will learn to be faultless with time as well.

As an 18-year-old, I was in a life-changing car accident. Like most teenagers, I thought that I was indestructible. I was going too fast on an icy road and being careless. I hit a patch of ice on a corner and panicked. I was always told not to hit the brakes on ice, so of course, I didn’t. I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best. That was the wrong thing to do. I hit the ditch at 65 miles an hour, hit a culvert, and flipped onto the roof of my blue cavalier. I fractured eight vertebrae and my sternum, got a large gash in my forehead, and lost a lot of blood. I had to spend almost a week in the hospital and was in a back brace for more than two months. But, I was lucky to be alive. If any small thing would have been different, I might not be here right now. I believe that with a bit more education on the severity of accidents, and I might not have been so reckless.

The day of my car accident changed my life in more ways than one. I now cherish every moment I am alive, I drive much more cautiously, and I tell others about my story. I explain to whoever will listen about what happened to me to try to get them to understand how one wrong move and their life could take a turn for the worse. If I am riding in a car with someone who is speeding or not following the rules of the road, I tell them of the gravity of safe driving. Education isn’t always what you learn in a classroom. It is sometimes what you learn from the mistakes of others. I hope that my mistakes could save others from the same. Maybe my mistakes could even save a life.