In an Instant

In
an Instant

It
happened in five seconds. Maybe less. At 7 am, on an icy morning, I
spun out into the ditch. Changing lanes on the highway in my city, my
car spun. All I remember is screaming in confusion and fear. On my
way, I ignored all of the signs saying, “Drive slow, slippery
roads.” I was not driving slowly. Despite the warnings and the icy
roads, I was going at least 65 mph, if not more. I am lucky. I wasn’t
hurt. Spinning out right before a bridge, my fate could have been
much worse. A few feet further and I would have hit the barrier and
possibly flew into the river. On the other side of the highway,
another car ended up in the ditch. Speeding caused me to end up in
the ditch. Maybe texting caused the other car to end up in the ditch.

I
could have died that morning. The person on the other side of the
highway could have died. Drivers ed can be essential to
preventing deaths on the roads. I remember when I first started
driving, I never went over the speed limit and I never looked at my
phone. Now, I find myself constantly speeding and glancing at my
phone to change the song or look at maps. As time goes on, we tend to
get more careless. Drivers ed scares us into safe driving. If
we were all scared straight, we would probably drive safer and making
the roads a safer place to drive. But the question remains, how do we
make roads safer and decrease deaths on the roads? My solution is for
everyone to renew their license every year. To renew one’s license,
the person would have to take a short online course, reminding the
person of the rules of the road. This course would be followed by a
brief test that one would have to pass to officially renew their
license. Reminding people of the basic traffic laws and what can
happen if they are broken, could keep people mindful of the
consequences of unsafe driving. Just like renewing your CPR
certification every two years to make sure you know what you’re
doing, having people take a test to renew their license every year
would ensure that they know the laws.

After
my trip into the ditch, I have been more careful with my driving.
When the roads are slippery, I slow down. I pay closer attention to
what is going on around me when I am driving. But I am certainly not
perfect. I still speed and I find myself glancing at my phone on the
side roads. There is more I can do to be safe, and so can you.
Together we can reduce deaths related to driving.