A blink of an eye. That’s all it can take before dreams for the future diminishes into shattered glass, unable to be fully repaired. Although the lives of teenagers in driving incidents worldwide can be put back together piece by piece, there will always be a shard missing as the internal damage will last for a lifetime. Teenage driving safety is a subject that gets disregarded easily, as many assume that even the shortest trip to said location will be “fine”.
As a teenager myself, getting my drivers license and my first car was one of the most intriguing yet frightful experiences I have undergone simultaneously. At first, all that came to me was a sensation of freedom. I was able to travel on my own time, spend more time with my friends, and get some peace and quiet when needed- or so I thought. Nowadays, I constantly ask myself “Is it worth risking my life on the daily to feel free?” when driving. Not only do you have to pay direct attention to the actions you partake in on the road, but also need a keen spacial awareness of what goes on around you.
When I was first learning how to drive with my father through a parent-taught course online, many of my friends were going through driving schools to advance into their journey of being “free”. The majority of these friends went to a school to which they had a family member teach them, and in a way help them pass the exam without the same requirements I had. I thought it was odd and eventually had genuine concern towards their safety on the road if they don’t have as rigorous of a program that teaches all the necessities of safety and practice as I had.
With teenagers, especially driving with friends can lead to a significant amount of peer pressure to do things that go against your morals. Oftentimes, this freedom just leads to doing things you know deep inside is wrong, but still going through with it to feel a sense of satisfactory approval by others. One of my first experiences being with my friend who just got their license was eye opening. There were many things that shouldn’t have happened that did, leading to consequences that the driver had to face. These being a ticket for speeding over twenty miles per hour of the speed limit, and having too many people in the car than permitted. I never got back into that car after seeing the way they drove and how aggressive they were to other drivers around them as my friend group cheered them on to do so.
It’s quite odd that being aggressive towards one another can boost the confidence of others. So much so that they progress into more harmful and dangerous activities. In the school parking lot at school, I saw a large group of girls running to a smaller car, smashing themselves into the seats and even the trunk without wearing seatbelts. From there on, they hit the gas pedal very rapidly, leading to several almost collisions. Not only that, I ran into the bathroom earlier and saw them making decisions that harm themselves.
However, it is not only the fault of teenagers. As for myself, I’ve had many experiences of drivers tailgating me, being on their phones on the highway, or swerving into my lane without any form of signaling. With this in mind, the fault of teenagers can come into play based on how they react to such instances. All over social media, I’ve seen videos being posted about teenagers going off the road to yell and argue with one another, flipping each other off, and being aggressive back to said driver. Even though this can relieve temporary frustration, it leads to a more dangerous setting for innocent drivers that could be harmed in these situations. Just the other day, I had plenty of room to switch lanes, I signaled while doing so and sped up to give extra space for the car behind me. However, the driver was angry with me and came up to the rear end of my car, almost hitting me and then drove away yelling at me with the window rolled down. Even though that reaction upset me, I made sure to stay calm and not let their frustration get the best of me. I believe that is the most important element - remaining calm. The more frustration we have built up prior or during driving leads to immature reactions.
I believe it is important to teach teenagers, specifically, to not get onto the road if they feel extremely emotional, making sure they can get a hold of themselves before stepping foot onto the road. Another example of a teen driver safety issue I saw happen was with one of my friends that had been broken up with by his girlfriend. Instead of waiting until he was calm, he got on the road and had the goal of taking his life by driving into whatever he saw. It is crucial to show the positives and negatives of driving, and teaching students that they need to think before and while driving to prevent harming themselves or others.
Unfortunately, many people do not understand the consequences of their own actions until something horrific or tragic affects them personally. Humans are naturally selfish, but it’s important to love another through simple acts of kindness. Even if our lives are already shattered and have pieces missing that we wish we had, all drivers should come together and give us the decency to be calm and thoughtful with our actions. Otherwise, the glass will leak for eternity without any stability or support from others.