A Ruthless Killer That Thrives Off Ignorance

We as a society take safe driving for granted. We have all seen someone driving carelessly, whether that be a friend, family member, or stranger. We let it slide when we speed to work because we woke up late. Or when we change lanes without checking our blind spot because we are almost sure nobody is there. Or when we divert our attention to our phone for just a second. Nobody thinks it will happen to them. Nobody thinks that they will be struck by tragedy. Until it happens to you.

My high school used to participate in this program every two years about the importance of safe driving. They didn’t take a traditional route to inform us about safe driving using typical methods like a Powerpoint, or a seminar. The group who organized the program would take a wrecked car and place it in front of the school for everyone to see. Throughout the day, someone called the “grim-reaper” would come and take a couple students from class. With their consent, these would be the students that would act as a deceased victim in this staged car accident. I think this method can seem cruel or insensitive, but nevertheless, it draws attention to the issue. Nobody thinks they will get into a fatal accident, until they do. This program is meant to be an effective, and eye-grabbing, method to point attention towards driving safely, and that an accident can happen to anyone. The next year after this program took place, there was a real car crash in my community. This time it wasn’t staged for informational intent about safe driving. It was real, and a very loved high schooler died that day.

December 3rd of 2018 is the date when my high school, and community surrounding it, changed forever. A young man died that day in a car accident. I don’t intend to exploit his story. I don’t know his full story. I know the basic details. I know that the impact he had was so massive that it hurt someone like myself, and others, who didn’t know him that well. I know he was one of the most admired people in my school, rightfully-so. I know he was on the basketball team and was an extremely hard-worker. I know he was kind, and showed everyone he knew that they were loved. I know that he was a genuinely good person, and didn’t deserve what unfolded in his life.

He got into a fatal car accident. He was the only person in this accident, and nobody else was injured. It drastically changed my community. The grief and sorrow this incident brought was an ocean stuck in high-tide. It altered the course of not only his life, but the vast amount of people who loved him. We take driving safe for granted. This isn’t to say that car accidents are anyone’s fault. Nobody tries to get into a wreck. However, it’s so much easier to pretend they won’t happen to us. Or that they won’t happen to the people we love so dearly. When we think about safe driving, it’s important to remember the people who died too soon. It’s important to hold these victims close to our hearts, so we don’t have to see another similar incident happen again. We need to remember them because they lost their lives to a ruthless killer that thrives off of ignorance.

Driver’s education is the pathway to reducing the number of deaths resulting from driving. Just as any type of education works, if people know more about a subject, they can use it when they need to. Education is power, and can significantly aid in helping reduce driving-related deaths. Finding ways to captivate an audience on the topic of safe driving is the most important way to teach it. This can be through a demonstration, like at my school, or a spokesperson who has lived to tell their tail. These two specific ways seem to be effective because it puts a situation or a face in people’s minds. They will go home from the informational session and remember the person who had their life altered forever. Or they will remember the scene of a beat up car in front of their school. I know I did. Even just one lecture put into place in schools about driver’s education would go a long way. Driver’s education is about planting a seed. Hopefully, it will continue to grow in people’s minds the next time they get behind the wheel.

With issues like fatal or serious driving accidents, it’s easy to feel helpless. It’s easy to feel like you can’t do anything. You definitely can’t turn back time, or have prevented an accident that already happened. But you can focus on preventing them in the future. There are things we as individuals can do to become a safer driver, and help others do the same. We need to become mindful drivers. Once we get comfortable on the road, we feel it’s okay to get lazy. It isn’t. Being a mindful driver is understanding that we get lazy. It’s understanding that we have the urge to check our phones on the road. It’s understanding these things, and choosing to make the right decision based on that knowledge. This goes for helping others become more safe too. Your attentiveness can pick up slack for others who aren’t as focused. We can hold our friends, family, and peers accountable. We need to remind ourselves that it happens everyday, all the time. We need to clear our minds of the belief that it won’t happen to us.