Lives in your hands

Lives in your Hands

Driving. A fun right of passage, to drive with friends, to feel free, and to take you from place to place. The driver’s education teacher told them some story about a teenager in a car accident, but that’d never happen. The unthinkable would never happen, and that one look at my phone won’t hurt. Speeding just a little more isn’t the end of the world. These misguided thoughts are notorious in causing more and more vehicle related deaths among young drivers. A driver’s license can lead to fun activities and memories, but one must first understand that a two-ton weapon is what you are permitted to drive. The more people that understand this is key to less reckless actions will lead to tragedy.

Of course driver’s education tries to show the dangers of driving, by dramatic videos, tragic stories, and horrifying pictures. This may actually be less efficient in promoting an understanding, because not every car accident is fatal and tremendous. Yet psychological repercussions can stem from a comparatively small accident. When I was in the 8th grade, my sister and I got into a car accident. She was on her phone, even when I voiced my protests. We hit our neighbor’s solid brick mailbox, at about 30 miles an hour. The car was totaled, and our parents were furious. If I had not had my seatbelt on, I would have collided with a mailbox that had crushed the windshield in. If the windshield had fallen, the mailbox would have crushed me, even if I had a seatbelt on. That day made me realize how important it is to never take a license for granted, and to understand what a small plastic card can do.

My friends find it too cautious that I don’t speed. They find it tedious that I refuse to drive even two minutes without everyone seatbelted into safety. They’re annoyed when I have to tell them my phone password to change music in the car. I find it annoying that they don’t understand how much it would kill me to see them hurt. They find it careless that they brag about how fast they went over the speed limit. I find it reckless that they disregard the lives they have in their hands. Driver’s education can’t really make a true understanding, but it is imperative that young drivers learn to promote safe driving. That young drivers do not let their peers discredit their safe driving, or pressure them to make less “uptight” decisions. Driver’s education is important, but should stress that massive car accidents are not the only dangers. Dangers can come from your friends, and to lessen those dangers you must speak up against the reckless behavior that you see. Do not allow your friend’s to make hasty decisions, hold them accountable. Because your lives are in each other’s hands whether you want that responsibility or not.