Ongoing Driver’s Education

Driving a car is a privilege that many people take for granted. Most of us go through drivers education while in high school, usually as 15 year old kids. We are naïve to the dangers associated with driving but just can’t wait for the day we turn 16 so that we can take our drivers exam and become a licensed driver. To read the statistics that 34,000 Americans die yearly as a result of driving is a devastating number of deaths that could have been prevented. Going through drivers education, I must say that I did not give much thought to the idea of dying behind the wheel. We did spend a significant amount of time discussing texting and talking on cell phones while driving. It can be very distracting, but as teenagers, many of my friends did not think those rules applied to them. I, however, had a different take on that education and that message that we talked about during every class. What really had an impact on me was the real life situations and videos that we watched of devastating accidents. Seeing cars that were crushed like a pop can because the driver was distracted, truly hits home for me. It is my hope that when drivers get behind the wheel and they get a text, their mind flashes back to the devastating videos of car crashes caused by distracting drivers. For me personally, I do not need the videos to remind me of the devastation that distracted driving can cause. I experienced it first hand in 2016.

August 21, 2016 is a day that my family and I will never forget. It was the last day of the Steele County Fair. After a day of riding rides, enjoying fair food and spending time with family and friends, we decided it was time to head home. As my dad, my sister and I stopped at the cross walk, waiting for our signal to cross, we would have never imagined that our lives were about to change forever. The signal turned and gave us to go-ahead to cross the street. As we walked across the first lane of traffic, a mini van approached the intersection at full speed, failed to yield to the three pedestrians in the cross walk and hit all three of us. It all happened so fast. The driver did not stop. She just hit three people, running one completely over and just kept going! I was lucky and sustained a few scratches on my back as her driver side mirror grazed my back. My dad was hit head-on, smashed his face on the hood of her car and was thrown several feet where he lay unconscious. He broke his nose, suffered a concussion, a broken knee cap and tore ligaments in his knee and tore several things in his shoulder. My 12 year old sister was struck by the van and her leg ran over. She also broke her arm and her leg other leg was bleeding from the road rash. Witnesses to the accident ran down the road to stop the driver. Several blocks later the driver stopped and insisted that she did not hit anyone. There were parts of her vehicle laying in the cross walk, blood splattered on the hood of her car and the mirror was ripped off but still hanging by the wires. She was ticketed for distracted driving and failing to yield to a pedestrian in a cross walk. This changed my life forever, despite all of us making a full recovery. It gave me a new perspective on distracted driving. In the police report, multiple witnesses gave statements that the driver was seen talking on her phone. A very preventable act that resulted in pain and suffering for me and my family. Prior to this accident, my parents would routinely answer or read text messages while driving without giving it a second thought. It never crossed their mind that it may result in a car accident. After August 21, 2016, nobody in my family ever read or text while driving. It should not take an accident to realize the devastation that texting and driving can cause.

As a result of the experience that my family experienced, we have shared our story with many people in the community. We advocate in our community to prevent distracted driving by encouraging others to resist texting and driving. We do not allow texting while driving when we are in the car or when I am with my friends. We cannot make people change but through our experience, we can help others realize and understand how their actions can lead to devastation and potentially death.

I truly believe that every licensed driver should be required to complete educational requirements each time he or she is required to renew their license. Many professional licenses require continuing education to maintain their license, why not enforce the same educational requirements for renewing a driver’s license. The Department of Motor Vehicles should have a list of educational opportunities on their website that are required to be completed, prior to being allowed to renew a driver’s license. Driving rules and laws are often changing; having an educational requirement at the time of license renewal would aid current drivers with the knowledge they need to be a safer driver, thus potentially reducing the death and injury rate of drivers in the United States. Having a driver’s license is a privilege and it should not be something that is taken for granted. All licensed drivers should have ongoing requirements if those holding the license wish to continue being a licensed driver. It seems quite simple and easy to implement especially when the impact of this education could potentially prevent the loss of a life.