Saving a Few Minutes Isn’t Worth Lives

Saving a Few Minutes Isn’t Worth Lives

By; Syeda Shaima Hussaini

“Oh quit your whining, I’ve never gotten a ticket!” my mother exclaims as I encourage her to slow down. The intersection’s traffic light turned yellow, but my mother showed no signs of slowing. “Come on, come on, come on,” she mutters as she pushes down on the gas pedal, trying to avoid being stuck behind a red light for a few minutes and hoping we won’t be late to our doctor’s appointment.

All of a sudden, my siblings and I are thrown against the front seats. A pickup truck on the crossroad decided to run a red light and was merely a few feet away from plowing through my mother’s car. My siblings and I sat gasping for air while stopped in the center of the intersection, in shock of what nearly happened. My mother quickly gathered herself and proceeded to our appointment silently, grateful that we were unharmed.

This incident occurred before I had even gotten my driver’s permit, but it is forever ingrained in my mind. For years I had heard the warnings to not text and drive, to not drink and drive, to wear your seatbelt, and more, but many fail to warn about how the other drivers on the road are equally as important. You can learn as much as you want about driving through a textbook, but defensive driving is something that an instructor should teach. Driver education teaches more than just what road signs mean, it prevents countless deaths by training you to be aware of your surroundings, especially of other cars.

In the incident I experienced with my mother, there were two drivers at fault. Of course, the truck which ran through a red light was clearly in the wrong, but my mother was too. Although it is technically allowed to go through a yellow light, it is required to slow down and stop unless it is unsafe to do so. In this case, my mother had a lapse in judgment and put all of her faith in the other drivers, trusting that no one else would break the rules so she could easily do so. Driver education and defensive driving would have taught any driver in this situation to slow down and stop in anticipation of anyone else’s mistake in order to save lives, no matter how urgently you need to reach your destination.

The difference between a new driver who just got on the roads and a driver instructor who has been driving for several years is experience. Driver instructors are extremely familiar with the utter unpredictability of other cars, and are trained to act in anticipation of others’ mistakes and random occurrences. For example, when you are stopped at an intersection and the light turns green, a new driver would immediately hit the accelerator and go. However, an experienced and conscious driver would wait at least 1-2 seconds to scan the roads to be sure the cars of the crossroad have all stopped before proceeding. The only way new drivers can even begin to learn the dangers of driving and the sheer importance of defensive driving is through driver education.

Every driver is responsible for making countless possible life-or-death decisions on the road, and it is absolutely crucial to think about the consequences of your own actions while also the actions of others. Next time you drive, please think about whether saving a few extra minutes is worth innocent lives.