Sirens pierce the crisp October air. The air is thick with
apprehension as we stream out the doors of my high school to the
parking lot. The scene in front of us is inexplicably horrible.

Two cars,
crumpled against each other, reduced to nothing more than scraps of
metal. My friend’s boyfriend hanging through the windshield of one
of them, motionless. The girl that sits next to me in my
environmental science class trapped inside, screaming for help.
Several other people in my grade, people I’ve known since
elementary school, splayed on the ground in unnatural angles.
Police and
firemen buzz in and out of the scene, putting people on stretchers,
talking in low voices, trying to figure out what happened. My friend
is screaming. No one is helping her boyfriend, and her screams grow
louder and louder, to an ear-piercing, abnormal volume. I realize
why: it’s because he hasn’t made it.

Suddenly the
sirens stop. The screams cease. The air is filled with a pregnant
silence. The victims in the crash get up and walk normally.

None of it is
real.

I’m at a
distracted driving simulation our school puts on every year in
coordination with our local fire and police department. Actors are
selected from our grade, painted with fake blood, and instructed to
behave as if they were in a life-altering accident.

It is an eerily
effective presentation. Watching and reading material about the
dangers of distracted driving is one thing. Seeing the people you’ve
known since you were five years old on the ground, covered in blood,
because of one careless decision is another. It is a scene I will
never forget; an eternal reminder to not drive without my eyes on the
road seared into my brain.
Engaging driver
education is necessary to remind drivers that the horrific scenes
they see on television, or on the side of the road, could be them one
day. It’s so easy for people to think “that will never happen to
me” or “I’m always a good driver.” People don’t really
learn a lesson until it directly affects them, and seeing my friends
contorted in the school parking lot certainly did that.

Drivers ed
should not only include written material and statistics about
distracted driving, but potential situations where people they know
and love are involved. Accidents from distracted driving can so
easily be avoided, that’s what most tragic about them.

So when I, or
someone I love is behind the wheel, I encourage them to wait to take
a bite of that burrito, text back that friend, or change the song
blasting in the car until it is safe to do so. Those things will be
there when we get out. They can wait.

We as society,
need to become more proactive in making sure we keep our eyes on the
road. Drivers ed needs to be more interactive, so people
realize how easily that wreck on the road could be them, and actively
work to prevent it.