You just gotta scare ’em a little.

One of the most blissful parts of being young is the notion that death is something that only happens to other people. At least, this was a blissful experience of my youth. I was a good kid: I got my homework done, did my chores, and was respectful toward my parents. But when it came to my general physical safety: swimming in the ocean, skiing for the first time and refusing to wear a helmet, or eventually driving, I was under the impression that nothing could possibly go wrong. Children are coddled, shielded from danger in any way their parents can, and driving becomes the first encounter many young people have with a real threat to their life, and I was no exception. It didn’t help that as the oldest of a household with full time working parents who didn’t have any time to teach me, I was not only arrogant, but ignorant. I knew how to steer the wheel (barely) and I knew that red means stop and green means go. And after getting my license, I drove as if there were no consequences. This does not mean I was a reckless driver, there was no excessive speeding or anything obnoxious. But there was my phone, and on top of that, a general lack of experience or education, and I had no fear. Looking back now, I can’t believe how lackadaisical my mindset was. This was all shown through my first accident, which occurred not two weeks after receiving my license. I place the blame squarely on my lack of education, but more importantly on lack of awareness. I turned left way too early at a stop sign, and a pickup truck coming from the left would have t-boned me if he hadn’t swerved out of the way. The front of my car took off his back truck door, and his truck wiped away the whole front of my car. I was hysterical. I didn’t drive for months after that.

How could that particular accident have been avoided?

Well, the foundational issue was my subconscious belief that nothing could go wrong. To this day I still don’t completely know what happened, but I knew that at that moment, as I realized the truck was coming for me and I was in the middle of his lane, my first thought was that of course he would stop. He’d be pissed, and probably lay on the horn, but he would stop. It never occurred to me that I was about to get hit. Even after that, it was my dad who pointed it out to me that if he hadn’t swerved to miss me, I would have been hit by a truck going 45 mph coming from my left, the side I was obviously sitting on. I very really could have, would have, died, or at least been seriously injured. But it never occurred to me, not even after the fact. I always wonder if I had just a little bit of fear in me, would things have turned out differently? No one wants to scare kids out of driving at all, but honestly, people like me need to be scared a little. And that goes for most teenagers, believe it or not, I am not very unique.

Perhaps a required drivers Ed class freshman year for every student, as mandatory as English class, where not only are you taught about driving, but are made fully aware of the consequences. It would be done in such a way that emotion is provoked. Honestly, I think the best bet would be to put together a sad story of someone dying, and make it as gory as possible. People remember things that provoke emotion, and it is better to scare people then allow them to drive 25 mph over the speed limit, or in my case, assume the Red Sea will part so that I am not hit.

My second accident was easily the most classic example in the book.

You guessed it: my phone distracted me.

It was much less dramatic than the first, and nobody’s life was at stake, but it was far more crushing. There was a curve in the road as I received a text, and in answering it, I ran into a right off of a big rock, which popped my tire and caused the axle of my car to smack the ground, and my airbags to set off. The car was totaled because of the air bags, and it was only 5 months later! I know, I probably don’t even sound relatable anymore, because what kind of an idiot totals two cars in five months. Well if you really want, turn me into your cautionary tale. My experience may not be as impactful, but they were definitely undesirable.

The most important thing a new driver can be given is experience, and awareness. We need to be made aware that for the first time our lives are truly in our own hands, and so are the lives of other people. We need to not just know this as a fact, but understand it in its entirety. A high school course would help standardize the education the country receives when it comes to driving. I know that this is no revolutionary idea, a drivers ed class taking place in a high school, but the standardization and nationalization of one is necessary to ensure safer roads for future generations. Understanding the psychology of teenagers is half the battle, which is why being aware of what is going on inside of our heads: a general lack of awareness of our own mortality; and what the best response is: something involving emotion, over facts. Presenting statistics of fatalities due to reckless driving will cause those numbers to be grouped in with math class. Teenagers need instant gratification, and now more than ever, something to hold their attention. The best way to do that is to show them real life, emotional, and graphic examples. Some healthy fear has only protected lives, especially the lives of people who think they’re immortal.