On December 7th, 2023, I was driving to school after dropping off my younger sister at her school when I went too soon at a stop sign and got into an accident. At that moment, my life came to a halt. I was frozen in position with my hands on the wheel for what felt like forever, until I came back to reality and realized that I had hit someone. I immediately called my mom and got out of my car to go check on the other person. She had been okay, but she was much calmer than I was; I was hyperventilating, crying trying to explain what had happened to my mom. She asked if she could explain to my mom instead, I guess she must have noticed the state I was in. Not long after, a cop showed up and asked if everything was okay and if I felt hurt at all and needed an ambulance. I now know that I was in shock, as I simply shook my head no and sat in the other woman’s car that she offered up to me. I had stopped crying when my mom showed up alongside the tow truck. I got my things out of my car and while I did so my mom spoke to the woman and the cop. After all of this, I headed home and laid in bed.
You do not think it will happen to you until it does. Lucky enough for me, the Lord decided that day was not my time to leave this world, and I left with some bruises and scratches on my hands from the airbag. My car was totaled, and I went without a car for months. Not everyone who experiences a wreck has the luck I had. 34,000 people die in car accidents every year, and yet car safety is not something often stressed in most schools. In 2022, a total of 2,883 teenagers died in a motor vehicle accident according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). Drivers ed was never offered to me until after I had gotten my license, and before that we did not even have a teacher for it nor a class. The prevention of car accidents starts in schools; if schools required a credit in drivers ed, people coming out of high school would have more knowledge of driving safety.
For months after my wreck, I had to ride with others, and I was hyper-aware of their driving abilities and things they did while driving. Even if they just barely did not brake around a curve, I would grip my seatbelt in fear of the car losing control. I would watch the road like a hawk, as if I was the one behind the wheel; even so, I had zero control over what habits the driver had and felt like a backseat driver if I commented on anything. People in my family, friends of mine, and even bus drivers that simply just drove me on a field trip, were all victims to me critiquing their driving. As annoying as it sounds, I truly could not help how paranoid I was after my accident.
Now that it has been almost a year and a half since my wreck, I have taken many steps to be a safer driver on the road for my safety and others. I make sure to make complete stops at stop signs and not to try and cut someone off, I always use my blinker, I try not to speed, etc. While I believe these are very simple steps to have more safety on the road, others may have a harder time doing these. I improved my mental health and physical health, which in turn improved my driving skills. If I had the option to take a drivers ed course during my time in high school, I think my driving abilities could have been much better when I first drove vs. now. Obviously, it takes time to be a good driver, but it speeds the process up significantly when being taught proper safety.
Teaching, and enforcing, freshly permitted drivers road safety and rules will prevent deaths on a grand scale, we just need to put it into action. If we choose to include driving safety more in schools, more attention will be given to the risks of the road and will educate new and previous drivers alike. All it takes is one for action to be taken, be the one. I have expressed my views on driving safety to my close friends and loved ones and from what I have seen, it has impacted on their driving. Do not let it take being in an accident or someone close to you getting in an accident for you to care.
You do not think it will happen to you until it does. Lucky enough for me, the Lord decided that day was not my time to leave this world, and I left with some bruises and scratches on my hands from the airbag. My car was totaled, and I went without a car for months. Not everyone who experiences a wreck has the luck I had. 34,000 people die in car accidents every year, and yet car safety is not something often stressed in most schools. In 2022, a total of 2,883 teenagers died in a motor vehicle accident according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). Drivers ed was never offered to me until after I had gotten my license, and before that we did not even have a teacher for it nor a class. The prevention of car accidents starts in schools; if schools required a credit in drivers ed, people coming out of high school would have more knowledge of driving safety.
For months after my wreck, I had to ride with others, and I was hyper-aware of their driving abilities and things they did while driving. Even if they just barely did not brake around a curve, I would grip my seatbelt in fear of the car losing control. I would watch the road like a hawk, as if I was the one behind the wheel; even so, I had zero control over what habits the driver had and felt like a backseat driver if I commented on anything. People in my family, friends of mine, and even bus drivers that simply just drove me on a field trip, were all victims to me critiquing their driving. As annoying as it sounds, I truly could not help how paranoid I was after my accident.
Now that it has been almost a year and a half since my wreck, I have taken many steps to be a safer driver on the road for my safety and others. I make sure to make complete stops at stop signs and not to try and cut someone off, I always use my blinker, I try not to speed, etc. While I believe these are very simple steps to have more safety on the road, others may have a harder time doing these. I improved my mental health and physical health, which in turn improved my driving skills. If I had the option to take a drivers ed course during my time in high school, I think my driving abilities could have been much better when I first drove vs. now. Obviously, it takes time to be a good driver, but it speeds the process up significantly when being taught proper safety.
Teaching, and enforcing, freshly permitted drivers road safety and rules will prevent deaths on a grand scale, we just need to put it into action. If we choose to include driving safety more in schools, more attention will be given to the risks of the road and will educate new and previous drivers alike. All it takes is one for action to be taken, be the one. I have expressed my views on driving safety to my close friends and loved ones and from what I have seen, it has impacted on their driving. Do not let it take being in an accident or someone close to you getting in an accident for you to care.
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Steering Toward Safety: The Transformative Power of Driver Education
Emma Zinkowski
