Safety in the Back Seat

As
a teenager who was eager to hop behind the wheel, I always heard the
cliché and repetitive messages about distracted driving. However,
these warnings were easily brushed off because in my mind, I had more
important things to worry about. I never hopped in the car and
thought about the risks of the road. Instead I was worried about what
song would play on the radio or who I was going to hang out with. For
me to fully understand the dangers of the road, I had to experience
it.

One
day, I was driving to go eat lunch with a friend. To meet her, I
casually cruised on a back-country road with subtle hills and turns.
The same Cadillac had been driving in front of me for a while and I
felt comfortable enough to look down and change the radio station.
Once I was satisfied with the station, I looked up and witnessed the
Cadillac collide with a car that made a left turn at the wrong time.
Despite being in complete shock, I managed to swerve to the other
side of the road into some grass.

After
this incident, my perspective on being behind the wheel completely
changed. Since my minor accident, I have realized that I can make an
impact on a small scale. Before I get on the road, I silence my
notifications and preset my songs on the radio. The road is now my
top priority because I know that by doing so, I’m preventing an
accident.

However,
it should not take a drastic experience like mine to get someone to
drive safely. Safety has always taken a backseat because we
constantly overestimate our driving skills. We think that accidents
can’t happen to us, when in reality an accident can happen to
anyone.

The
most important thing about accidents is that they can be prevented.
Ensuring driver safety is a team effort that cannot be accomplished
solely through occasional advertising or lectures. The only way to
initiate change is to change the way we are approaching driver
education. Many times, the approach is to give a bunch of rules and
restrictions (“don’t text while driving”, “if you are sleepy
do not get on the road”, etc.). While these rules are essential,
they never get across to drivers because they have a hard time
figuring out why these rules matter. Drivers ed should be
providing people with the answers to “Why?” through things like
the personal stories of others and updated statistics. Making changes
like these will not instill fear in novice drivers but it will
instead give them the courage to make safe choices to protect
themselves and other drivers.