Evaluate, Think, React

By far, one of the scariest moments of my high school career thus far was coming home on the team bus from a varsity swim meet, and seeing the aftermath of a car crash. I’ve seen car crashes before, but what made this one different from the others was one person- my coach. As a bit of background, the most defining feature on my swim coach’s car was a very specific decal on the far back windows. When all of us swimmers see that decaled car pull into practice, we know that our coach has arrived.

Fast forward to that night coming home from the meet: as we were approaching the crash site, all of us looked out our windows to catch a glimpse of what had happened, and why we had to pull over so many times for sirens. Recalling the crash is like moving in slow motion. I remember one of the girls on the bus looking out her fogged up window and shouting, “It’s Coach! That’s Coach’s car! It has the decal on it!” An ambulance, a fire truck, and five police cars surrounded the scene.

Everyone on the swim bus was panicking, and my head was swimming with thoughts. I snapped out of it after passing the crash site completely. Being the captain of the team, I took charge in order to help keep people calm- even though I was freaking out myself. I mean, had we left the swim meet only two minutes earlier, that crash could have very well included us. This thought scared me just as much as my coach being involved in this accident. I even called one of my friends that night to talk though the emotions surrounding this crash.

The next day at practice when my coach showed up, he told us that an elderly woman had a medical emergency in her car that caused her to pass out in front of the wheel. She cut across three lanes of traffic, somehow avoiding other cars, before the car arrived before my coach’s car. He pulled the emergency brake to slow his car, but the crash was inevitable at that point. Coach then went into a monologue about how important it is to be educated on the rules of the road, and to know how to drive defensively. I asked my coach soon after this conversation how he knew what to do in that split second, and he told me that he took driver’s ed when he was learning to drive. He knew that he needed to evaluate what was happening, think of what to do next, and react in an appropriate manner in a matter of milliseconds.

Driver’s ed is not just for teenagers to attend and just forget months after they obtain their license. This course saves lives, just as it did my coach. In the case of my coach’s crash, the woman had a medical emergency, and therefore it was up to my coach to make the best decision possible for the other driver’s life and his own. Without his driver’s education, even though it was over 15 years ago, he may not have known the importance of pulling the emergency brake, or trying to maneuver the car so that it wouldn’t crash into the driver’s seat of the other car. Even something as simple as wearing a seatbelt saves lives in the event of a car crash.

In modern day, most drivers have access to a cellphone in the car. Using a cellphone or handheld communication device impairs a person’s ability to focus on the road. Being educated though driver’s ed allows for teenagers and young adults to fully understand the implications that come with distracted driving. This, in turn, saves lives. Even if people think it’s redundant when someone says, “Don’t text and drive,” that same annoyed person will remember that short phrase and think twice before pulling out their phone to text, call, or change the music in the car.

No one involved in my coach’s specific crash was driving distractedly, but thousands of car crashes each year are due to inadequate education on how to behave properly on the road. Therefore, to be safer on and around the road, take a driver’s ed course. If you can’t afford a course, use your own computer or one at a local library to look up online the rules of the road so you can familiarize yourself with how to keep safe on the roads. It’s as easy as going to the DMV website in your area, clicking the search bar, and typing in *insert state here* rules of the road. Being educated on the rules of the road may end up saving your life, someone else’s life, or in my coach’s case, both.