Driver’s Education (and how it failed me)

Thick drops of rain plaster my windshield, and I turn my wiper setting up another notch. I tap my fingers against my steering wheel as I coast down the left lane towards my orthodontist’s office. I check my watch and survey the time: 7:46 a.m. My appointment is at 7:55, and I’m barely a quarter mile away, so I should be on time. I’m the only car turning left so I pull up to the center of the intersection, waiting for the line of cars driving straight to pass so I can get through. I gaze farther into the distance and see a small break in the wave of vehicles, with two trailing a little behind. It’s not a huge gap, but I can probably make it. I wait for the rest of the cars before the break, and then I rotate my wheel hand over hand to turn. But it’s raining so hard, and the two cars suddenly seem like they’re moving a lot faster than they just were. Time seems to speed up and slow down all at the same time. When I think back to this moment months later, I will ridicule myself for not taking their speed into consideration. I step on my gas a bit harder and feel panic start to build, slowly but surely. I make it through the first lane in what feels like slow motion and think to myself, “Wow, that first car was really close to hitting me.” But now the second car is even closer and in the back of my mind, I know there’s no way that I can get out of the way in time. There’s really nothing left to do but press even harder on the gas even though it’s obvious that a collision is imminent. I am almost through the path of the next lane when I feel it: a hit so hard against the back right part of my car, just at the trunk. There is a sound like metal tearing and a screech, and I hear myself scream as if I’m a thousand miles away. My head hurts and I feel dizzy even though I know that I’m not physically hurt. My car spins from the impact, but my foot is still on the gas. My tires screech as I progress onward and run head-on into a metal pole; my head is thrown forward but my seat belt holds my body back. The pole makes a sickening noise and falls backwards, a considerable dent in the middle part where I struck it. That was one of the most difficult days of my life for obvious reasons, but also because I was disappointed in myself. I really thought I was a good driver, and my pride took a hit. On the day of my accident, I was wearing my seatbelt and wasn’t physically injured whatsoever, neither was the man who hit me. But what if my brother had been in the backseat? Or if the driver who hit me had gotten seriously hurt? I truly would never have been able to forgive myself. That same day, mere hours after the incident occured, my mom told me to get in her car and to go back to that same intersection so that I could make the left turn again. I was petrified of course, but I’ll never forget her telling me that if I didn’t get back to driving immediately, that it would take me much longer to do so the more time I waited. I ended up making the turn again; my heart was racing a mile a minute, but I did it. I know that the accident was completely my fault, and I take full responsibility for it. Nonetheless, I knew when taking driving lessons that there were some gaps in my knowledge of the road. And when I passed my driving test, I was secretly very excited that I had gotten my restricted license without knowing all of the information the instructor had asked me. I really feel as though if teenagers took their driving education more seriously, and parents actively encouraged this, then there would be fewer deaths on the road. If all new drivers talked with their instructors, parents, and each other about the dangers of driving and how to avoid accidents, these incidents would not occur nearly as much. Although, one can’t force young people to be interested in safe driving, since I know I really wasn’t before I got into my accident. New programs could be instilled in the DMV to teach about the dangers of reckless driving, schools to offer classes on how good driving is beneficial, or even parents just choosing to take initiative to talk to their children about how dangerous driving is. If new drivers took their driving privileges more seriously and treated them as such, accidents like mine would be less common.