People don’t take trips, trips take people.

As
a young man, to ponder loss was unimaginable. That would end and
close a chapter of my life when my mother was killed in a car that I
was driving. I wasn’t driving reckless, as far as the law was
concerned. I had though been driving uneducatedly. While on vacation
and driving to our destination, a ski resort in Wyoming, as the sun
set, the road had become a sheet of ice. We had started to spin out
of control across a highway but somehow, I had managed to make it to
the ditch on the other side and then came the impact. A car had done
the same thing from the opposite side of the road and she was gone in
an instant. I don’t think most can understand what it’s like to watch
their mother die in front of them like that but it happened to me. I
was in college at the time but dropped out shortly after. I had
become deeply depressed over the subsequent years. It took me almost
twenty years to re-enter college, which is where I find myself today,
at the age of forty, entering into my senior year.

I
learned a lot though from that event about properly maintaining a
vehicle. I forced myself to because I didn’t want to lose someone
else, that I loved due to something so obtainable as the proper pair
of tires for road conditions. I had no idea as a young man how
important the four little tracks of rubber that touch the ground are
when it comes to operating a vehicle but why didn’t I know this? Of
course, I had taken my driver’s exam and I could tell you which way
my wheels should be turned on a hill but I was never educated to
understand the role tires play on a vehicle. I supposed that auto
manufacturers have a price point and the parts they equip a car with
having to fall within a price range but at what cost? If I had been
educated in the use of snow chains and if they had come standard like
a spare tire perhaps my life would have been much different and my
mother would still have life. She would have seen her grandchildren
born and experienced so much more, instead, she was taken that night.

My
experience in no way is the only means of perishing on the roads of
our nation. People today drive distracted with the use of technology
and so many other things with the demands that society places on us.
If young people grow up ignoring the seriousness of operating a
vehicle through education, I firmly believe that road fatalities
would be reduced. I have seen the effects of education, along with
stiffer penalties and how in combination they have made drinking and
driving a shameful and taboo practice. It took a horrible experience
for me to self-educate myself as to what I could do to make my car
safer. Better tires equal better braking even more so than your
brakes themselves but that isn’t necessarily something that is
required to know for a driver’s exam or something most people
consider when purchasing a car. Most people I think assume all
weather is sufficient in any condition. It took education to realize
that it isn’t and it will take education for others to learn how they
best can safely operate an automobile. I don’t drive anymore as I
find public transportation fitting to my lifestyle. I can work on the
train or bus and catch up on tasks digitally but many people drive
daily. I use the education that I have obtained to teach others about
basic road safety like making sure that they have proper tire
pressure as it’s so important to check especially during times of
extreme temperature changes. Hopefully, something I have taught
someone has saved at least one life along the way.

While
educating drivers to operate safely is infinitely important, it is
equally important that our government regulate the commerce of
manufacturing and selling vehicles in our country. Auto safety has
indeed come a long way but it isn’t close to foolproof. The
government has vast resources and an interest in the public’s safety.
If the government would legislate that cares were made even safer, or
if they spent money on research and development on things such as
lighter and stronger materials, everyone would be safer. The biggest
promise I see looking to the future as a means of making driving a
less deadly activity is the advent of automated driving. Private
corporations today are racing to develop these technologies not to
benefit mankind, but for the profit of their shareholders. If the
government would invest in funding universities to develop the
technology then it could be used system-wide by all manufacturers
which should translate into higher prices for these vehicles because
the cost to produce them would be lower and in doing so it would be
funding education and creating jobs for domestic automakers while
making the roads a safer place for all of us.