It was an unassuming, regular-old July night. The highway between Ohio and Michigan was calm, the progression of the green 1978 Pontiac nice and steady. The young passengers were asleep, sandwiched neatly in the front of the vehicle. Their dad was seated behind the wheel, his tired hard-working frame ready to be home. To this day they are uncertain what exactly transpired. The peaceful moment did not last for long, the memories of the passengers forever altered by a deadly accident. The Pontiac’s driver’s side smashed into the concrete pillar of an overpass, killing the aforementioned driver upon impact, and robbing those children of their father. I once asked my mom if she would go back and change that night. She paused, but only for a second. ‘I don’t think so,’ she had told me. ‘If things had happened differently I likely would not have met your dad, and then I would not have you.’ Even though her answer made perfect sense, and the butterfly effect that would ensue would significantly and perhaps detrimentally reshape my mom’s life, I have always sort of wished that things could have turned out differently for her. I have wondered what it would be like if I could have met my grandfather and my mom could have gotten to know her dad better - how her world could have been if only that deadly driving statistic had been reduced by one. Unfortunately, the number of deadly car accidents has remained at an increasing rate, with some of the leading causes including distraction and aggressive driving. These issues, while horribly fatal in practice, are actually quite avoidable, with the help of proper driver education.
Despite the numerous warnings against it, we are all guilty of distracted driving. We receive a tempting text from a friend or parent, we blast our favorite song just a little too loud, we become the chauffeur superhero with more passengers than we can handle. We make these seemingly benign mistakes because we convince ourselves that we are good drivers. ‘I have this under control’, ‘I drive like this all the time’, ‘what is the big deal’...so on and so forth. These distractions, in our minds, are not in any way harmful, and I agree, sometimes they are not an issue. But when these distractions go from a one-time thing to a hard-to-break habit, then we are putting ourselves and others at unnecessary risk. As a driver, it is our responsibility to be safe because when we get behind the wheel, we are taking not just our life, but everyone’s lives into our hands. That is not a small thing, and we as a society need to stop treating it as such. We should understand that the well researched guidelines put in place by the government are not an overreaction, but rather an appropriate guide rail so we don’t slide off the lane and into the gutter. When we receive that text, we should not reply to it, even if we’re at a red light or a stop sign. If it’s really important, we can always pull into a parking lot or safely move to the side of the highway with the hazards turned on. Even if we are in love with the radio choices or our own bluetooth playlist, we should keep music at a safely low volume or turn it off altogether if it becomes difficult to focus. We should never sacrifice our lives or the lives of our friends/family because they pressure us into giving them a ride. Ubers exist for a reason, and more important than pleasing people is secure driving with a manageable number of passengers. All of these solutions are things I learned through my own driver education, and it has been incredibly successful in eliminating my own potential distractions.
Nine times out of ten, when we get behind the wheel and complete a drive, we have to use our horn at least once. Someone pulled out in front of me from a parking lot and I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting them, someone else ran a red light or sped through a yellow one, someone wove through lanes with no blinker or any other form of indication, I saw someone through my rearview mirror that was way too close for comfort, etc. All of these behaviors can be classified as aggressive driving, which as I learned in driver’s ed, is unacceptable under any circumstances. The correct conduct when on the roads is aggressive driving’s opposite: defensive driving. Defensive drivers know to use the proper method of checking before making a turn (left, right, left) or if their vision is obscured, finding an alternate route with a traffic light. They also understand that red lights are not to be ignored, and yellow lights are not a suggestion. If a car has reached the intersection at full speed and the light changes, it is proper protocol to then proceed through with caution rather than stopping abruptly and unsafely. However, this is a rare exception, and regardless, a defensive driver should never accelerate through a yellow light. A defensive driver appreciates the manufacturing of a car, and utilizes the blinkers put into place. They apply their indicators with care, checking their mirrors before changing lanes and keeping that lovely flashing light on until they have fully crossed over the dashed lines on the road. A defensive driver never tailgates, instead, they implement the three second rule (choosing a fixed object and making sure there are three seconds from when the car ahead of you passes it and when you pass it) to maintain proper distance. A good, properly educated driver is a defensive driver and recognizes the importance of non-reckless driving.
Deaths as a result of driving are a devastating statistic and as of today, an increasing trend. However, if we start to improve some of the leading causes - distraction and aggressive driving - with a respect for the government safety protocol and an upholdment of driver education, then these accidents will become fewer and farther between. As a mentor once told me, “there's always another way because there’s never a reason why you should drive unsafely.” It’s our mission as the next generation to be not just secure drivers, but exemplary ones who will lead the generations after us into a safer tomorrow.