I
suppose that I haven’t had the most exciting stories when it comes
to driving safety. I haven’t had a close relative die, or been in a
multi-car pile up, but I guess that’s the point of this essay.
Sure, every single one of my 5 siblings, including myself, has been
in a car crash already, sure my sisters friend rolled her Jeep six
times and made it out okay, sure my mom broke her ankle twice in two
different car wrecks, but what's the big deal, no one died. Right?
How complacent have we become as a society where a few broken bones
is a “well it could have been worse” situation? Are car accidents
fine as long as no one kills anyone else? The answer shouldn’t be
yes. But people have forgotten that cars are not light machinery.
This isn’t your coffee machine or electric toothbrush. You have to
take state testing, pass multiple tests, go through a class, and
often have homework on driving. All of this to receive a license.
Legal proof and documentation that you understand how to keep safe,
how to avoid danger, and how to preserve human life over getting to
work on time. And people aren’t keeping their promises. Drunk
drivers, distracted drivers, good drivers who just didn’t pay
enough attention to the rain, any one of these people could kill a
person; and they do at incredible rates. We should not be complacent
with this. We should not be accepting with the abuse of this
privilege. So how should we proceed? How do we reverse a society of
contentness that refuses to agknowledge needless and exusable murder?
I suppose the first step is to start scaring the living daylights out
of people. Start talking about on road deaths, start showing
pictures, start hammering the point that your recklessness can lead
to this. And then, start beefing up legislation, more speeding
tickets, more seatbelt laws, and more punishments for those caught
breaking on road laws. I realize this plan isn’t fun. I don’t
have a catchy slogan to cap this essay off with. I don’t have a sob
story to win your sympathies and bring a tear to your eyes. But I
think I shouldn’t have to. I don’t need a family member to die in
a car crash to realize that that exact thing has happened to
innumerable kids my age. I don’t need to lose a leg or crack my
head open to know that a lot of Americans are walking around with
crutches and a scar on their head. What I need is to stop that from
happening to anyone else, to stop useless and horrific deaths just
because we, as drivers in this country, have lost our healthy fear of
cars. What I need is that fear back.