Driving Home the Point

Driver’s education plays a critical part in reducing the number of vehicular fatalities because it helps people learn not only traffic rules but how and why those rules protect others. When people follow the rules of the road, they are protecting not only themselves and their driving records, but also their communities.

In order to create a lasting reduction in car accidents, we need to implement systemic changes. Driver’s education should be mandatory for everyone, regardless of whether they choose to drive or not. It is important to have an informed general public so that everyone knows how to respect all modes of transportation. It may be smart to provide widespread, free access to renewed driver’s training every few years too; I have encountered some senior citizens who express a desire to retake a driver’s education course because it has been so long that they have forgotten some technical traffic laws.

Additionally, it may help to retest drivers a few times even before they must retest during their elderly years. This reinforces the idea that traffic safety is a government priority. It could help emphasize the importance of continuing to be a safe driver all throughout your life and provide an incentive for learning the rules of the road.

This is an especially important principle especially for new drivers. As teenagers, having a car is so exciting that it is easy to forget the ramifications of operating a vehicle. One cautionary tale involves an old family friend. He got into the car with a friend who drove almost eighty miles an hour around a turn and crashed into a tree; the driver was unharmed while our friend was in a coma for almost a month. He has recovered well today, but waiting for him to wake up was an agonizing process. Watching his parents go through the whole ordeal was incredibly heartbreaking and it really opened my eyes to the gravity of what it meant to operate a motor vehicle. The driver’s life is not the only life in danger on the road, which is why it is imperative that we continue to remind drivers that they have a responsibility to protect others as well as themselves.

Recently, I was also involved in a car accident. Although mine was very minor, it taught me a lot about the real importance of road safety and education. I was turning into my school’s parking lot after coming back from lunch. I had two passengers, both of whom are some of my best friends. Friend A sat in the passenger seat and Friend B sat in the backseat on the passenger side. We had just turned into the aisle when a car suddenly backed into the rear passenger side of my car where Friend B was sitting. I almost believed it didn’t happen because it was so fast. I remember the visceral anxiety and fear I felt as I parked and stepped shakily out into the parking lot. I checked to make sure my friends were alright and sent them inside as I dealt with the aftermath of the accident. The other driver was incredibly upset. She told me it had been her second car accident in two weeks!

Neither of us had ever dealt with an accident by ourselves before, but we were lucky enough to receive help from a staff member. I learned the accident procedures that day. I also learned a lot about insurance procedures that day from teachers and helpful staff. The other driver and I were able to get business sorted out fairly easily and went our separate ways, but the entire time I felt detached and disconnected from the world. Any accident, no matter how minor, leaves its mark not only on the cars but on the people inside. Friend B had a panic attack later that day and I dealt with the immense guilt of being her driver, although she held nothing against me. At the end of it, we were all just glad that it wasn’t worse and I learned to let my insurance take care of the rest.

As I slowly began to explain to people who weren’t there the reason why I was so upset that afternoon, I realized the shocking lack of accident procedure knowledge among my accident-prone peers. Many of them didn’t even know where their insurance identification was. Most did not know that parking lots were private property or how to contact their insurance. While I became concerned about our postaccident capabilities, I received an overwhelming amount of support from everyone that I spoke to. Many of my classmates told me that accidents are a part of life; we are human and we make mistakes. We don’t mean to hurt people, but we do. I am hopeful that my generation will be able to treat the subject of accidents and related road hazards with the utmost care.

These harrowing incidents taught me what is at stake when people step into their cars. In fact, getting into a car is the most dangerous thing that many people will do all day. When operating a large moving vehicle, you are putting not only your own life at stake, but the lives of others too. These people include not only other drivers or passengers, but pedestrians, bikers, skateboarders, and everyone in between.

Thus, a driver’s education serves to remind people of the massive responsibilities that come with operating a car. Personally, whenever I am a passenger, I avoid distracting the driver and point out pedestrians or bikers they may miss so that they will pay more attention to them in the future. In the future, I could even help translate the latest edition of Rules of the Road for my elderly grandparents or the adults in my family in order to reinforce the rules of safe driving.

Driving home the importance of proper traffic conduct right now will ultimately save countless lives for years to come.