A few decades ago, I attended a prestigious eight-day conference in Washington D.C. for select high school students around the country. Before I could even obtain a driver’s license, I was touring the Capitol, the National Institute of Health, and staying in the George Washington University dorm rooms. I made new friends from all around the United States. I ate so much junk food and stayed up late laughing with my roommates. So many fond memories, so many stories to tell my family back home. But when I returned, my mood had suddenly changed. My mother asked me to sit down at the dining room table, said she had some news to share with me. My best friend, Jon, had passed away in a car accident. I didn’t know how to process what I was feeling, how a moment of ultimate joy and happiness could fall to such depths I couldn’t pull myself out of. It didn’t really hit me until the next day, when Jon’s mother requested me to be his pallbearer. And as I carried my best friend on my shoulder, I attempted to relive his final unconscious moments, trapped in some fiery vehicle that the driver simply lost control of, a situation that could occur to anyone at any time.
I’m much older now, but I think back on that moment, and how it changed my entire outlook on the act of driving. Were they driving irresponsibly or erratically? We’ll never know, and it won’t change the past, unfortunately. What it does change is how we move forward. I come from a time where a formal education in driving was unnecessary. One could just take a written exam and a road test and pass easily. Most states probably don’t require any standardized education in driving, and it’s such a disservice to the community. If certification courses are needed to operate a forklift, construction equipment, and even industrial machinery, all of which can harm a human life, why shouldn’t we require the same for drivers on our populated streets? This would most certainly reduce the number of accidents and deaths on the road today.
A more formal education for drivers can also help address one of the main causes of vehicular accidents today – distracted driving. I see it all the time: drivers texting while on the highway or changing the radio stations, and even pedestrians walking right into oncoming traffic while on Facetime. We have become so preoccupied living our lives through our devices that we have forgotten the importance of focusing our full attention on the operation of this large metal machine in motion. We forget that the vehicle does not drive itself, we control its actions. We consider it a right and ignore the honor in calling it a privilege, because it doesn’t take a substantial effort to receive a driver’s license nowadays. Which is why, in my opinion, a formal standard education should be required for all new drivers.
Because of my old scar tissue, I have put a lot of thought into my driving. Of course, I always follow the manual requirements, such as checking my blind spots, defensive driving, wearing a seat belt, etc. But in our modern age, it takes a little more effort, like shutting off my phone to avoid distractions, keeping one radio station or CD playing, and keeping the volume low enough to hear outside noise. I learned this in November 2019, when a car slammed into my vehicle from behind. I looked into my rearview mirror and saw the driver on his cell phone mere seconds before I felt the force of the impact (and the whiplash). Sometimes, you can do all that you can to drive safe, but it won’t help if other drivers don’t follow suit.
Can we, as a community, truly find a way to reduce the number of deaths as a result of driving? I believe that if we can establish a more formal standard of education for new drivers and teach drivers of all ages to let go of their devices while operating a vehicle that we would be one step closer to a steadier decline in deaths. I’m not sure if one exists already, but I would love to see a website link that would lead to an online promise that any individual driver can enter their information and make a vow to turn off their devices to prevent further accidents from distracted driving. It may seem silly to some, but it will mean something to make a claim to the world that we care enough about the people around us to do better. It won’t save my friend Jon, and it won’t prevent my recent rear-end collision, but if we all do our part, we might just be able to put a dent in these numbers.