My Experience with drunk driving and almost losing my father.

The significance of enforcing and teaching proper driving methods through Drivers Ed courses becomes challenging to put into words due to its inherent requirement. However, it is incredibly necessary to communicate, and these essential precautions can save thousands of lives. The sheer number of deaths as a result of careless decision-making while driving is terrifying, and something assuredly must be done to bring attention to such an issue. As someone whose dad almost died, resulting from reckless decision making on the road, I have a lot of personal stake in this issue. In my father's wreck, it occurred in the form of drinking and driving when a drunk kid and his girlfriend t-boned him back in 2007. Because of this high school kid's selfish and misguided judgment, my dad's truck flipped four times, and he became hospitalized. I thank God all the time for his luck in surviving and the fact that he was wearing his seatbelt because it saved his life. Because of him wearing his seat belt, a safety precaution he took on his own accord, his injuries remained minimized, and he survived. This little detail which he could have very easily neglected, allowed my siblings and I to grow up having a dad. This sole fact was something that could have quickly been taken away from us had he not exercised such precaution.

Taking Drivers Ed seriously, and realizing the potential ramifications that could result from not doing so is something needed by new and current drivers. In my case, I had to have something so tragic occur for this to become instilled into myself and my family's lives. If there is a way to reach others and communicate the seriousness of this topic, that may be necessary for the future. Not everyone has been so directly affected by the negative implications of unsafe driving. It's difficult to pinpoint how exactly this would need to be established to be useful, but I think in today's world its commonplace for young drivers to only utilize safe driving methods until they have earned their license. From there, everything learned is tossed aside and taken for granted in most cases.

As mentioned previously, my father's instance is one of the hundreds of thousands, and many were not as lucky as him in the case that he survived. My father means the world to me, and I was only in first grade when the whole scenario happened. I haven't had the most carefree life since then, and things would have been monumentally more difficult without his presence. I don't drink or smoke, and I've yet to be in a wreck or be charged with a ticket after driving for over three years, which are both valuable things I attribute to such a trying yet necessary time in my life.

I believe that the steps that need to be taken pertain to the seriousness and focus required to drive on roadways. These precautions are too often devalued in favor of being accepted and impressing others; two things which can result in the ruining of lives for merely trivial reasons. What needs to be done is a reissuing of how necessary these steps are in preventing future tragedy. Similarly to the anti-cigarette commercials always present on TV, there needs to be a modern and well executed PSA campaign which can effectively relay not only the need for precautions and safety when driving, but also inform them of the danger and penalty they may face should they refuse to comply and have the misfortune of being the cause of an accident because of this refusal. I believe that this can be also be done in a much less expensive fashion through a mass collaboration of young people through social media. While the internet has many negative implications attached to it, people with a common goal can utilize the internet through social media movements and campaigns to spread ideas through the masses. There are many much less great jokes and ideas pressed on by the masses on an everyday basis, so what is preventing us from shining a spotlight on something of the utmost importance in today's societal landscape.