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Driver Education Round 3 – The Key to Change Is in the Mindset of the People

Name: Katelyn Heaston Heaston
From: McCordsville, Indiana
Votes: 0

The Key to Change Is in the Mindset of the People

Kids! Come to mommy’s bedroom! I need to talk to you”, my mother shouted from the other end of our little white house. Sounds of tiny footsteps scurrying all around the house broke out as all three of my siblings and I got up from what we were doing to listen to what our mother had to say. I was so excited to hear her news! It sounded important. However, when my oblivious eight-year-old self made it to the bedroom, I could tell something was wrong. With shaking hands and an intensely despondent tone, my mother spoke. She expressed, “Daddy has been in a car accident.”

I was just a child and did not fully grasp the weight of what that sentence meant until we went to visit him at the hospital. When I saw my hero hooked up to machines after experiencing what was labeled a “minor collision”, I began wrestling with the idea of how unpredictable yet impactful driving can be.

When it comes to responsible driving, it all boils down to three things: the understanding of how fragile life is, the knowledge and execution of the rules of the road, and the ability to make quick and proactive decisions.

I was 8 years old when I began to process the fragility of humanity. If what my dad went through was a minor collision, what were the impacts of a major collision? It blew my mind just thinking about it. The image of my dad, the strongest most responsible man I knew, laying beat up on a hospital bed stuck with me.

In fact, this image stuck with me all the way until I turned fifteen and it was my turn to get behind the wheel. Saying that I was terrified would be an understatement, but there was no way I was going to let my mom drive me around in the family minivan for the rest of my life. So I took the first step and began my online Drivers Ed class. Only a few weeks in, I became overwhelmed by all of the rules because I recognized the importance of knowing and executing each one. I was in my head and needed hands-on experience. By deciding to get some of my hours in with a driving instructor, I was able to do just that. Through the time with the instructor, I was provided a safe and controlled environment to gain experience and grow in self-confidence; however, the image of my dad stuck with me. Respect for human life, knowledge of the road, and confidence from experience have helped me stay out of accidents, but how could I trust other drivers to carry these same values? I quickly found that you can not.

Earlier this year, my friend and I drove home together from a school event. While singing our hearts out to “Just Give Me a Reason” by PINK, the unexpected happened. We were going forty-five miles per hour on a suburban road when an 18-year-old boy pulled out of his neighborhood and tried to make a left-hand turn right in front of my friend’s little Honda Accord. She had mere seconds to choose between slamming on the brakes or swerving into the empty lane next to us. She chose to slam on the brakes and we crashed into the back of his car, totaling her Accord. It was the eighteen-year-old boy’s bad judgment for pulling out in front of us, but at that moment, whiplashed, concussed, and seatbelt burnt, I learned the importance of defensive driving. Humans are not perfect, and therefore it is crucial to be alert and focused while driving.

Through my dad’s accident, my driver education, and my experience with my friend, I have learned that as a driver, it is my responsibility to remember our fragility, to know and follow the rules of the road, and to maintain a focus while driving that allows me to respond quickly when other drivers make mistakes. If everyone had this mindset, I think that deaths from automobile collisions would decrease dramatically.

The current driver’s education system, accompanied by driving instruction hours from a professional, does a great job at preparing people physically for the road; However, I do think that there is a gap in mental understanding of how fragile life is. Most people value human life but forget how easily it can be taken away. For this reason, Drivers Education should require a short bi-yearly course that reminds people of the value and fragility of life. Each year, it could feature a family that lost someone they love to a collision. It would give the family a platform to turn their tragedy into change and it would give drivers a chance to pause and think about their life.

This addition could be very impactful and I think that people would be super receptive. It is so easy to get caught up in the chaos of our own lives, causing us to become reckless and sloppy drivers. At the very least this required course could snap people back into the reality that the world doesn’t revolve around us as individuals and that our actions have major ripple effects. Accidents will always happen, but 34,000 human lives lost in a single year due to reckless driving is unacceptable. The key to change is in the mindset of the people. All life is precious. All life is fragile. All life deserves to be protected. The day that humanity realizes this fully and acts accordingly will be the day we see change.