Saving Lives With Responsible Driving

As an individual who has had to suffer damage caused by an accident due to lack of driver education, there is no doubt in my mind that the improvement of any one driver’s knowledge lacks any urgency. It is crucial that the state is able to provide a system that can actively keep drivers in check so that they are aware of the dangers that exist everyday while on the road. There are only so many things I can do to maximize my safety as a fellow driver or even pedestrian, but it is everyone’s job on the road to act as if they are responsible for every life near them as well as their own.

Driver education is important in the reduction of driver deaths because it reminds us what we are up against everyday when we are behind the wheel. To be educated in driving is to understand the very tool we sit in. A car is perhaps one of the most dangerous tools that the average American uses on a day-to-day basis, and this is something that a majority of us tend to overlook. I believe that staying up to date at least bi-yearly with the knowledge we needed in order to get behind the wheel in the first place wouldn’t be a lot to ask of individuals who drive cars. When one understands that they can end a life in the blink of an eye due to something as insignificant as spilled coffee, a quick glance at a text, or a middle finger to a stranger, the seriousness of driving becomes all too clear. It’s seems obvious when this is understood that commonplace retesting to freshen up on driver care and knowledge wouldn’t be a big price to pay at all; However it isn’t very clear to me what it takes in order for people to begin to understand the gravity of what it means to drive a car around or be near a road, but to a lot of people like myself it took getting hit by one to really grasp the nature of this beast.

When I was just fourteen, an irresponsible driver ripped my freshman year of high school from me with the hood of his SUV. The physical and mental damage that this accident scarred me with is something that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and you couldn’t pay me enough money in the world to have me go through it again. This experience was one that taught me quickly that we aren’t safe just because we are in the crosswalk when the little man says it’s safe to walk; It doesn’t matter how many signs or colorful flashing lights are on the road. The reality of the road is that there are human beings driving dangerous machines, and every one of us is capable of making horrible mistakes due to our own faults. Whether we were being distracted, arrogant, rude, or irresponsible, we are constantly reminded by our own mistakes or the mistakes of others that driving is a privilege that comes with an immense amount of responsibility and need for care attached to it.

The types of things we can do to avoid these types of accidents could be as simple as reminding ourselves everyday what we are capable of as drivers on the road. However if it were this simple there wouldn’t be so many deaths due to irresponsible driving. Personally whenever I have an urge to reach for my phone or adjust the volume or look at something that might be distracting, I have the reminder of my accident to tell me that I could do to another young man what was done to me. For an individual that doesn’t have this type of experience resting in the back of their head as a memory, I would simply recommend that they pay attention to traffic accidents regularly on the news and the things that they read. On a less personal level, I think it would be interesting to see that a requirement for being able to keep a license wouldn’t be as simple as a renewal, but perhaps some type of periodic driving test. I don’t think the purpose of this would be to make sure experienced drivers still “got it,” but I do think something like this would serve as a valid reminder that everytime we hop in our cars and zone out from destination to destination could be ours or anyone else’s last day alive.

This becomes all so painstakingly obvious when learning that over half of Americans use a car to get to and from work everyday. This doesn’t even include the busses and taxis and trains and people just walking around thinking about what they’re going to do for the day. Ultimately no amount of personal experience or book knowledge will rid the world of driver related deaths, but we can at least try to get the numbers lower can’t we? The next time we hop in the driver seat lets take five uninterrupted minutes and spend them thinking about all of the lives we could save by being the responsible driver. Every time we decide not to reciprocate road rage or distract ourselves with a phone while we drive could be a moment where we spare a human being from death and the agony that would await their grieving family. Cars may get us places faster but surely we can be patient with death.