Risks, Rewards, and Rebellion Behind the Wheel

Approximately 46,020 people died in motor-vehicle related accidents in 2021, according to the National Security Council. This ever-rising number of casualties is not a surprise but a tragedy, displaying the power of operating a vehicle as a true matter of life or death. This is why driver’s education classes, practice courses, and written tests are so necessary for new drivers and overall public safety on the road. It is imperative for inexperienced and seasoned drivers alike to maintain a solid foundation of driving knowledge and comfort with new vehicles and their associated safety features, in order to reduce potential risk for injury in a car accident. Distraction management, intoxication or impairment avoidance, and educational support serve as some core steps to reducing the annual number of deaths associated with driving.

First and foremost, driver’s education allows motorists—namely teens or young adults—who are unfamiliar with the responsibility of operating a vehicle and local driving laws to become accustomed to them prior to getting behind the wheel. By teaching drivers how to best utilize the mechanical features and safety measures available to them, it can also help reduce reckless driving tendencies and therefore reduce deaths associated with car collisions. Using typical methods such as online or classroom course material and driving practice with a licensed adult instructor, those providing driver’s education are able to instill the practical knowledge required for new drivers to be successful in their own vehicle down the road. Finally, impact statements and video or photographic material can be a shocking but effective way to help drivers understand just how severe the privilege of driving a heavy vehicle can be. Often, driver’s ed courses will include a sizable section on the effects of drugs, alcohol, or sleep deprivation on a driver’s cognitive ability and the amount of crashes or fatalities in a certain area due to impaired motorists. This hopefully increases the amount of awareness with which these students operate their vehicles in the future and reduces the number of those who choose to drive while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs.

There are a variety of steps that can be taken, or current programs that can be improved, in order to reduce the number of deaths related to driving. One of these is offering early start driver’s education programs, which might allow younger teenage students to spread their learning of roadway signage, driving laws, and vehicular operation over a longer period of time and give them space for extended practice in a controlled environment before hitting the streets. Personally, I was taught various rules of the road by observation as I drove around with my parents throughout childhood and first sat behind the wheel officially at eleven years old. There on our rural dirt lot, I was able to become comfortable with the many controls in my mom’s Chevy Blazer at a slow pace, avoiding potential injury to myself or others. I was also enrolled in driver’s education classes at fifteen, where I was shown the risks of impaired driving and learned the specific aspects of our local driving regulations. The main purpose of these earlier available classes would be to allow students, at their parents’ discretion, to learn the many facets of driving at a safe pace and capacity for their age or experience. Another advantageous option for reducing potential fatality risk is minimizing distractions in the car while increasing available safety elements. With all of the modern bells and whistles being placed in cars today, there are certain dangers to new drivers that were not necessarily present in previous decades; these might include the ability to game or watch movies on their vehicle’s computer screen or the countless buttons available on their steering wheel to control the music, directions, sunroof position, and more while driving. Safety measures such as speed governors or video screen limits, as well as effective time management (to avoid speeding in the first place) and driver’s etiquette courses, can be helpful in best developing a motorist’s skill. When interference from friends or pets within the vehicle already offers a safety hazard to young drivers, it is best to decrease the amount of additional triggers that could potentially cause an accident.

Though I was involved in a car accident as a child (due to a reckless driver running a stop sign), the most notable event that I’ve known of personally is that of some students at my high school. Likely following a party with friends, some teenagers decided to take a joyride in a pickup truck…this, of course, was the beginning of a truly tragic story. The group in question consisted of seven senior boys, all of whom were football players and my fellow classmates. The area in which they began their drive can be an unsafe one in the daylight, zig-zagging through overgrown horse properties and dense residential communities. At night, its unexpected dips, curves, and narrow lanes can be treacherous, especially when distracted by other occupants in the vehicle. At approximately three o’clock one morning, two of the boys hopped into the cab and the rest piled into the bed of their pickup. It is unclear whether either of the boys within the cab were wearing seatbelts, though law enforcement did discover that no alcohol or drug impairment was to blame for the accident that followed. As they sped around a sharp turn, going significantly faster than the safe limit according to highway patrol officers, the teens in the back of the truck were thrown as the driver lost control and the truck rolled. Only six boys made it home the next morning to spend time with their families and eventually attend the colleges they’d been accepted to, while one was not so lucky. Mild to moderate injuries were sustained by the other boys in the truck, especially those loosely riding in the open bed…several were hospitalized and photographic evidence released later confirmed this, showing the bloody noses, lacerations, and crunched vehicle they’d earlier occupied. The loss of a student was felt throughout our school, but the loss of a dear friend had a profoundly obvious impact on each of the boys who experienced the accident that night—you could see it on their faces as they trudged through the halls and stared at his now-empty seat across the classroom. Though I didn’t know any of the parties affected very well, I would assume that such a gruesome and personal deprivation fundamentally changed them, and their caution when operating a motor vehicle, immensely.

Stories covering the death of a classmate or the countless casualties printed in the paper are a constant call to action, insisting on better driving habits and extended safety measures in the car. In order to be a better driver in general, I try to institute the drive-for-five rule: that I am not simply driving for myself, but I am also driving for the people to either side of me and to my front or back. This philosophy, instilled by my parents some years ago, helps me remain vitally aware of my surroundings and safely move out of the way of reckless drivers or ensure that I do not put anyone else on the road in danger with my driving practices. In addition, I make an effort to recognize that most activities can wait until it is either safe to carry them out while driving (in the case of sipping water or changing the radio station) or until I have reached my destination (in the case of any phone-related tasks such as texting or calling). This allows all of my mental attention to remain on the road, my speed to remain consistent and legal, and the safety of myself and those around me to be top priority. Overall, handling a vehicle of any size is a highly dangerous and easily botched endeavor which requires a careful hand, a watchful eye, and a mature mind to keep the day, and potentially a life, from ending with a crash.