All I heard was “BANG”

All I heard was “BANG”. I was in an accident right before I began driving on my own. As a student driver with my permit, I thought I was learning to become a safe driver. I was a passenger in a car of a friend who picked me up to go to swim practice at school. His father was in the passenger seat, and I sat right behind his dad. My view of safe driving instantly changed that day. As we were in the school parking lot, my friend driving with his permit decided to park right in front of our coach’s car. However, instead of braking, he accidentally hit the gas into the parking spot and rammed us right into the coach’s parked truck. There was no way to prepare, brace, or know that this was about to happen. I was powerless. I was dazed, instantly wondering what just happened? All I could do was stay still and think, is everyone in front of me alright? Parking is supposed to be slow and accurate. I remember the feeling of neck-snapping speed and smashing into that coach’s car coming to an instant stop, almost like we were in a bumper car.

As I sat in that back seat wondering how my teammate and good friend just crashed into our coach while entering a parking spot, I realized just how dangerous driving is. The trust someone puts into me even without being in my car. I can effect other people’s lives with one bad decision. I promised myself that I would take this experience to never allow myself to be in the same predicament.

My friend who crashed, was in the same driver education course as me. As much as we like to think that our knowledge would stop us from causing such a problem, we still found ourselves in this harsh reality. I think driver education needs to include some more real simulations to try and prepare first time drivers for even the most basic of mistakes such as hitting the gas instead of the brakes. We spent a lot of time reading the manual, but not as much time playing an actual driver.

In most trainings in our lives, in order to be able to do something that can hurt or kill someone, I would want to know that the trainee got some real experience before doing the actual stunt “for real”. However, in driver education, we put people into real cars and hope that they don’t mess up without any real-life experiences. Maybe there should be a closed course or driver simulation with video game like controls in a computerized setting.

The experience I had as the victim of an accident, has taught me to be aware, think more, and try to anticipate moves I would make in a split second in order to avoid ever reliving this. I think if more drivers had the opportunity to become sensitive to the ways accidents can occur, they might pay more attention on the road. Hearing a story is not as powerful as feeling helpless in a true emergency. With all the technology available to us, it would be amazing if people had a chance to experience a simulated accident where they didn’t actually get hurt but felt as if they were the driver and passenger of an out of control driving situation. This way they could dream about the way they would react if ever put into a situation that could have a horrible outcome.

The number of deaths demonstrated in the statistics given on this chart shows that there is a lack of connection between driver education and physical outcomes. Cars are now getting smarter crash detection features because people have not been successful in lowering the incidence. I am thankful for this since it seems we cannot currently rely on ourselves to remain 100% safe in every situation. As I relive the images of what occurred to me that day, and hear stories from friends who have lived through various versions of accidents, it helps keep me focused. After all, we are human and focus, awareness, and readiness changes from minute to minute. Realizing the feeling of fear and danger keeps me more respectful of the road. I never want to hear that “BANG” again!

One final thought would be to have drivers required to attend a driver “sensitization” class every time they are up to renew their license. They would once again be required to feel an accident through the simulated program. Then they can answer some basic questions about how they would avoid having this occur in real life. The more we are conscious about our actions will allow for a safer road for all of us.