Hands at Ten and Two

Carson Partain

I remember the first time I sat behind the wheel of my father’s car as he offered to let me drive around our neighborhood. It was a moment when I was ecstatic to experience becoming a driver for the first time. Once we sat in the car, he gave me a set of simple rules: have your hands positioned at ten and two o’clock, fasten your seatbelt, let down the parking brake before changing gears, and more of the traditional driving principles. But once we were pulling out of the driveway, he advised me of his golden rule for safe driving: Always expect the other driver to do the wrong thing. It took me some time to understand what he meant by that, but years later I finally began to understand. We introduce more and more enhanced vehicles over the years meant to improve driving safety, and cities focus more on public transport. Considering that so many people in this day and age rely on Uber and Lyft services to take them from one place to another, the need for drivers ed is more significant than ever. Though we don’t use these services in my region, it’s still important for every driver to be knowledgeable. We must continue to be responsible drivers because we cannot rely on others to be. Therefore, I find it to be my civic duty to ensure effective mindful driving to ensure one accident less.

I chose to take a Drivers ed course over the summer between my freshmen and sophomore year. I, like most other ignorant teenagers, thought that I had nothing left to learn about driving. However, once the teacher started disclosing the dangers of speeding, ignoring surroundings with rear-view mirrors, and texting, I knew that my time was being well spent in Drivers Ed. Without the class, most drivers today wouldn’t know the dangers of distracted driving and the fatal consequences that come with it.

At the age of seventeen, I had my first car wreck. The circumstances of which happened when I was in a rush to drive from my high school to a dual-enrollment class at a community college thirty minutes away. I made the poor decision of driving on a road with many twists and turns just after a violent downpour of rain. Suddenly, while driving too fast, my car started to hydroplane and turn a full one hundred and eighty degrees before quickly spinning in circles and stopping into an overgrown ditch. I hopped out of the car uninjured but completely terrified of what damage I may have done to my car. Luckily there wasn’t too much damage aside from the lopsided bumper, but it took 5 minutes to get the car started to drive out of the ditch. As a result of my wreck, I encouraged my friends and family to slow down in bad weather and to never drive distracted by any phones, music, or persons in your car.