In the Driver's Seat

The bike swerved unsteadily as I pecked anxiously at my Wahoo fitness tracker. I looked up to steady the bicycle and to make sure I wasn’t on track to hit anything or anyone. My father was on my left, and uncomfortably close for both of us- him being a seasoned bike rider- so I adjusted my course and tried again. The trail was straight and flat and I figured I could take a few moments to figure out exactly what was wrong with my device. I pushed the buttons a few times and twisted the tracker out of place with my one hand and was struggling to put it back into place and- CRASH! I had swerved into my father, crashing both of our bikes. This accident scarred me mentally. When the time came to control an even more unpredictable beast, with buttons and levers that did all sorts of functions I did not understand, I was a nervous wreck.

Driver’s Education was torture for me. However frustrating it was, the class helped me understand more about what to do and not to do. During breaks, one of my instructors (we had two) would let us watch car crash videos. The videos were both entertaining and disturbing, petrifying me beyond reason and convincing me that I did not ever want to be in a car accident. While being freaked out beyond reason and causing many, many breakdowns, these lessons in Drivers Ed. were essential to making me want to be as safe a driver as possible.

Driver’s Education can prevent many deaths. Educating the public is the best way possible to help prevent car accidents. Teenagers are the most likely to cause a car crash. Immaturity, impatience, and just not knowing all contribute to the statistics that display teenagers as the causes of car crashes. Patience comes over time, but cultivating it in upcoming drivers is essential to help decrease the number of car crashes. Drivers ed is very useful to aiding drivers learn the rules of the road. However, drivers ed needs to focus more on the dangers of distracted driving. I crashed the bike by becoming distracted by technology. It took only a few seconds for me to become distracted, but those few moments traumatized me. Car accidents are worse, and drivers are travelling much faster and people are doing increasingly risky actions all around. Add technology like phones, car radios, and even air conditioning into the mix and car accidents are bound to happen.

Bicycles are not as dangerous as cars- but the two are similar because you and only you are responsible for your actions. Drivers ed is a fundamental tool to help students learn how to safely drive, and needs to highlight the dangers of distracted driving more to prevent more accidents.