Rinata White: Steps to a Journey

Rinata White: Steps to a Journey

During my drivers ed, I learned a great deal about staying safe. The hours in the classroom were helpful because the videos were visual and exciting. One example was the need to have a seatbelt, and if you have an accident it will help you stay conscious. Still, I feel that some of my best experiences happened outside of the classroom while driving. Steps for me to be a better driver would be learning about the consequences of drunk driving, car maintenance, and requiring drivers to retake driving and written tests every 20 years.

A yellow line was on the ground, the cop roared “step right up”. Nervously, I went up. She handed me glasses that looked really thick and stated “walk the line.” With the glasses on, I nauseatingly walked the line. After getting to the end, I confidently whipped off the glasses to see how well I did. Unfortunately, not very well. I wasn’t on the line at all. Where was I? At a bookbag giveaway booth about 9 feet from the yellow line. Drinking alcohol raises the risk of a car accident. Drunk glasses could save lives if used in drivers ed courses to highlight the dangers of drunk driving.

When I moved back to my hometown of Indianapolis, I had to take a driver’s license test. I was a little uncertain about what it entailed, so I got the driver’s license study book. Page by page, old knowledge came easily but new knowledge was challenging to process. I am proud to say that I passed the test with flying colors. Yet, I also think that drivers should have to retake the driving test every 20 years to refresh their knowledge of driving laws and check their ability to drive safely. New laws can come on the books and being up to date is beneficial for all drivers.

I remember on a rainy day I applied my brakes, but I wasn’t stopping. My heart was in my throat as a continued past the stop sign. I didn’t know then that I needed new tires, but after that incident I did realize how important car maintenance is. My experience made me wonder how many other people need car maintenance information. If I only had some basic knowledge of car maintenance I might not have been in that dangerous situation. I believe that ASE certified car mechanic should have a day to teach the basics to any vehicle owner. A way to measure competency would be to have a quiz and hands on demonstration to pass.

After that accident I was nervous about driving in rainy conditions, and still am to this day. That scary experience is why drivers ed has been important to me. I believe there are ways to reduce crashes and injuries among young drivers by using drunk glasses as an instructional tool, car maintenance knowledge, and retaking driver’s tests every 20 years.