Name: Emily Buijink
From: Byron Center, Michigan
Votes: 0
Anyone
Can Be a Bad Driver
Getting
a driver’s license is one of the rites of passage for being a
teenager. The whole world seems to open up with endless
possibilities, until all the sudden your world comes crashing down.
This past summer, my friend Sydney Carfine, died in a car accident.
The cause of her accident was indeterminate. But following her death,
driving became extremely difficult for me. Every single time I
entered the car I started to second guess my actions because it was
like the news of her death was hitting me all over again. I did not
want to be the next car accident, the next statistic, the next teen
my community lost.
Driver’s
education is extremely valuable. It teaches students to drive
responsibility under the watchful eye of an experienced driver, it
also provides crucial experiences. This reduces deaths of newer
drivers immensely. Over time, those lessons start to fade away and
the causalities starting raising. A possible solution to such a
phenomenon is to have yearly driving tests until the age of
twenty-one (where it would then switch to every five or so years), to
make sure that drivers are keeping up with their good driving
techniques. Driver’s training is a tool to reducing deaths that we
are not taking advantage of. Everyone should have to go through a
mandatory test because most driver’s forget what good driving is
soon after taking their test, it no longer becomes a habit.
Technology
is one the largest distractions while driving. It is too easy in this
day and age to get wrapped up in, “let me quick answer this text”
or “let me respond to one email”, while driving. Technology keeps
getting easier to link to our vehicles, which only allows for more in
car distractions. Almost every teenager plugs their phone into an aux
cord the minute they sit down in their cars. This means that every
text or notification that comes to their phone is usually projected
through the car, letting the driver know that they just got a
notification, and because of our addiction to technology, the need to
see who just texted me or who posted what is almost overpowering. It
is terrifying how easy it is to say “I know I shouldn’t text and
drive, but what’s the harm?”, because the truth is there is an
incredible amount of danger associated with driving and texting only
raises it exponentially.
Ever since Sydney passed, I have been trying to
remain a good driver and practice the techniques that make a good
driver. I try to pick a playlist for music and leave it alone, even
if a song I am not in the mood for comes on. I stop fully at every
stop sign or light, and look both ways not glance. Her accident had
an effect on me, and I plan on doing everything I can to avoid a car
accident like hers.
