I Learned the Hard Way

Drivers Education is something that many students lack, myself included. My only form of teachers for driving were my parents, which seemed good enough to me, and they taught me well. However, it might have been nice for me and others if there was an established system in place to help inform us of driver safety. Teenage drivers are not always the greatest, and I have seen too many horrific things resulting from their accidents. It is within the blink of an eye that one’s life changes forever or ends. It is a chilling thought. Not only can it alter the course of a young person’s life, but it jolts their family, and everyone involved.

I think there are quite a few steps to be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving. For one, phones are the absolute worst distraction in the world. Personally, I keep my phone on Driving Mode. This way, I am not even tempted to look at it because I do not know if any notifications have come in. Another is music. Whether we like to admit it or not, the music in cars, especially those of teens, is too loud. This creates a problem for many reasons: you cannot hear if an ambulance/police car is coming, you cannot hear someone slamming on their brakes, you can become easily distracted and zone out. I think if people knew even the small things that create major problems, they might change their habits.

While I have never seen my family drive irresponsibly, I have witnessed many of my friends driving that has made me more uncomfortable than I have ever been. They can do any number of things that make me push my feet as hard as I can into the bottom of the car, even though I am not the one in the driver’s seat. They might not break until they are really close to a light or another car. They might check their phone or turn around to look at the passengers in the back, they will not leave at least a car sized space between them and the car in front of them. All of these are bad, but the one that tops it all is when they do all these things but are speeding. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have looked over at my friend’s speedometer and though, “Oh my lord they are more than 10 over!”. I do not understand why they are not as careful, but then again, none of them have experienced true horrors when it comes to driving.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way how to become a better driver. It has been almost two years now since my own accident, and I am still not entirely sure how it happened. All I remember is driving straight and the next thing I know, my head was thrown back against my seat, a large cloud of some dusty substance exploded in front of me, and a big white airbag sat in front of me, pushing me away from the wheel. I was not fully conscious for at least a minute after and was quite delirious. After regaining some sense of what was going on, I finally started to feel the pain from impact. I had a bright red, curved shape on my leg near my knee from my leg slamming against my steering wheel. I could not stop shaking, and it got worse when I watched my friends drive by. I would think the accident over in my head a million times, trying to make sense of it, because I thought I was a good driver. Then it hit me: you can be a good driver and still be in an accident. It happens, and it could be one minor slip up that causes it. While it was not entirely my fault, I still take the blame for most of it. I was not injured terribly, and neither was anyone else involved. I could not be more grateful that the accident was not worse.

While the accident was terrible and beyond scary, in many ways, it was a good thing for me. I would never want to go through it again, or have anyone else experience it, but it brought about many benefits. I am now a much safer driver, even more so than before. I learned how to watch everything and monitor the situation in front and behind me. My accident gave me a first-hand experience of witnessing how fast things change. Every time I get in the car, I am reminded of that experience. To ensure I never forget, I have the key fob of my truck I totaled in that accident on my current cars’ keychain. It is just a simple reminder that I made it out ok, and I need to do my best to ensure nothing like that happens again. When it comes to taking steps to help others be a safer driver, I have figured out a few things. I always try to set the best example for my younger sister, who will soon get her permit. I want her to watch how I drive, and hopefully she picks up a thing or two. Because of that, I drive as safe as I possibly can. I have also tried this with my friends. Whenever we carpool for something, I am driving like normal, trying to discreetly show them how to be safe. I do not think they pay attention for the most part, but I at least put in the effort.

Driving is not a game. The major thing I learned from my accident is that you should never underestimate the speed at which events can unfold. Upon impact, time does not seem real. For a second, you might not know where you are or what is going on. I do not know why I cannot remember how the accident happened or what it was like before and immediately after, but I do know one thing: I was alive, and so was everyone else. That is what matters. My parents repeated it many times. “A car is just stuff, but you we cannot replace.” I do not believe we should terrify teenagers out of driving. I think there should be more education on what the true risks are, and what we can all do to prevent an accident.