Name: JUSTIN T. LAKS
From: Vancouver, WA
Votes: 0
This
might be hard for the reader to believe but I am a 40 year old man
who is just now learning to drive for the first time in his life! It
is not that I have been avoiding trying to learn to drive my whole
life, it’s just the sad reality that I have never been allowed to
drive in my entire life. Some explanation is needed, I know. Bear
with me, I’ll get there. Let me first share with you my first
experiences in attempting to drive a several thousand pound vehicle
at high velocities.
Day
one. Learn what buttons, petals, levers, and other accessories are
meant for. These newer cars have so many distractions on the dash
board, it’s a wonder why there aren’t more accidents on the
roads.
After
that, it’s time to discover your spacial awareness in a car versus
a truck. As a new driver, my instinct was to put myself into the
middle of the road. This, of course, caused my driving instructor all
kinds of nervousness when his side of the car would get dangerously
close to the traffic around us… or the parked cars next to us!
Forcing oneself to drive with an imaginary line going down the center
of the car is very bizarre, not going to lie.
Turning
radius of a car versus a truck, okay, how to explain?! TRUCKS SUCK
FOR TURNING!!! Just going to put that out there. My first ever fender
bender was in a truck. I was trying to back out of a parking lot. My
corner of my bumper nicked the bumper of a parked car while I was
turning. Trucks are fun to play in but are absolutely horrible to
maneuver in tight spaces.
Merging
with highway traffic. I remember riding the roller coaster as a kid,
the G-forces pushing into me, the inertia making me feel queasy, the
fear of smashing into something solid with your small smooshy body.
Merging with highway traffic is just as scary but more real,
especially when semi trucks and dump trucks are zippering around you!
Parallel
parking. Unending humor for those watching, as I continued to ride up
on the curb, grind the tires against the curb, or get so stuck, even
my instructor had difficulties pulling us out. I watch the evasive
maneuvers of stunt drivers on TV and they would have difficulty
parallel parking!
My
assessment? It is not an easy task to learn how to maneuver tons of
rolling metal at high velocities on today’s roads. Almost as
dangerous as walking the big yard at a maximum security prison for
decades on end. Oh, didn’t see that coming? Seriously, my first
sentence mentioned that I am learning to drive for the first time at
the age of 40. What did you think I have been doing my whole life,
living in a cave? Well, the segregation units (fondly called “The
Hole”) were like a cave. So I guess I have been away for awhile…
a long while.
When
I was 16 years old, the courts decided to make me the first juvenile
in my county to fall under the “Adult Time, Adult Crime” statute
that was passed in 1995. That year, they placed me in an adult prison
as a child. Yep, don’t worry about turning 18 first. We will skip
all that and let you walk the big yard with adult felons. The danger
was probably equal to the driving accident and death ratios in our
country. I am surviving this new experience just like I survived my
experience in prison for 23 straight years. With awareness of my
surroundings, analytical reasoning, forethought, and preventative
maintenance.
I
can only wish my friends and family were as vigilant. I have watched
one friend put himself into a coma from a car accident that could
have been prevented (he still has not woken up) and another that is
now dead because he wanted to text and drive. They spent all that
time in prison with me, surviving riots, fights, stabbings, heart
break, loss, tragedy, etc., only to end it while driving in the free
world. Driving, a privilege we all take for granted.
What
can we do to become safer drivers? Treat every day you are behind
that wheel, maneuvering amongst other speeding commuters, as if you
were on a prison big yard. Bet everyone would pay closer attention
then.
