Now you’re on the 5-o-clock news. Did you think it’d be you?

How does it feel to be part of a statistic? You are now a part of the 34,000 give yourself a hand. You have outdone the troops. You have now contributed to a statistic outlining the amount of people that die from car crashes each year. Your family and friends are mourning. Looking at pictures of you thinking, “What went wrong?”. But we know what went wrong. This wasn’t just some freak accident where you lost control or someone else hit you first, no. This was your fault! You weren’t paying attention and you got too cocky. The other car, it must have come out of nowhere, but no, it didn’t. The car had been stopped at the light since it came into your view, but how were you supposed to know? You had to text the group chat back first. Now your face is on the 5-o-clock news. Did you ever think it’d be you? “What could I have done differently?” you ask yourself. Let’s start from the beginning and find out.

Driver’s education is the first step in obtaining a driving permit. You open the book filled with paragraphs about signs and road lines and think, “The test is all common sense it can’t be that hard” and the book sits in your room under a pile of clothes for 6 months until your permit test. Well, news flash, common sense is not that common. All parts of driver’s education act as emergency preparedness for driving the same way there’s emergency preparedness for storms. This preparedness with reduce the number of deaths if you know how to deal with it. Before you even start driving you need to start taking steps towards being a safe driver. It all starts with prevention. Before you even touch the wheel of a car the driving manual needs to get read. I don’t mean skim over it, I mean read! If you can understand the road signs and what they mean and the lines on the road, as well as the signals you are already helping reduce deaths on the road because you’re not driving blindly. Once you should actually be touching the wheel you need to drive for not only yourself but everyone around you and do not expect that anyone will do anything for you, expect they might do something to you.

December 31, 2018 is a day I will never forget. I got a phone call from my best friend at the time asking me had I heard what happened to my friend. I remember her in tears telling me my friend died in a car accident. This completely changed my stance on driving making me scared to be in cars. Even, though no one involved in the accident was at fault I remember being afraid to drive. As I grew through high school and started the driving process, I started to making decisions based on how my loved ones would feel. I don’t ever want my family to feel that kind of emotional hurt because it is for the most part preventable. There are steps I took to make sure that I was being a safe driver and living out my friend’s legacy. Patience is always the most important aspect of driving. Not pulling out in front of cars if you’re not sure you can make it and not honking horns unless it’s something truly requiring a horn. I only drive when I know I have the energy to do so. It’s not the best time after a nap, or late at night, or too long of a drive too early in the morning. I know what I can handle. The last one is something a lot of people don’t think about but can also be a cause for recklessness. Stop joking with your friends about your reckless driving. No matter how awkward the situation gets. These jokes only reinforce the behavior because that person joking about it now thinks its funny and will continue showing off which can lead to death, especially with inexperienced drivers.

There are so many easy ways to prevent people from car crashes. Safe driving is something I will always be passionate about because it is something I have experienced the aftermath of, and I don’t wish for that to happen again to me or to anyone else. Be sure to have the patience, attention span and knowledge to be on the road. Don’t be a part of the statistic.