The importance of driver education in reducing the number of deaths due to driving is pertinent. While there are not many of them, driver’s education teachers are extremely important in todays society. Something I remember that my teacher did was show videos of car accidents and what can happen to you if you choose to not drive safely. I think about him every time I get in my car when I check all of my mirrors to make sure they are in the right place before I put my car in drive. It is sweet to think about the impact a teacher like that can have on the rest of your life.
Steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving is something I am very passionate about. This year I wrote an essay about the constitutionality of making breathalyzers required for every motor vehicle. Through research I found that this would be constitutional, the larger issue would be the cost and the ability to enforce this. There is no reason why anyone would oppose requiring breathalyzers in every motor vehicle unless they themselves drive impaired. The people killed each year from impaired driving far outweigh the potential cost of making this a requirement. Another thing that would help is realistic driver education, when I was taking it, we did not learn about the true dangers of driving improperly. The feeling that it will never happen to you also plays a big factor when you do not get a harsh and real driver's education which truly emphasizes the dangers and outcomes of not driving safely.
I was a victim of that thought process that nothing bad would ever happen to me when I got myself into a car accident with my younger sister in the passenger seat. Being newly sixteen, I thought what all of us think when we turn 16, “I can drive and do whatever I want now.” It was the most monumental moment in my life at that point, until it wasn’t. Like all good big sisters do, I was driving my little sister home from her boyfriend's house because she claimed that our parents driving her around was “uncool.” All of this newfound confidence was ever so slowly taking over my mind, who wouldn’t want to be the chauffeur after all? I was taking on the persona of being the cool older sister. It was dark and we were playing our music as loud as it could go, thinking “how could life be this perfect.” If there was a piece of wood I could’ve knocked on I would’ve gone back in time and done so. I should’ve known how life plays these tricks on us. Texting a boy like all love-struck teenagers do, I was so entranced with what was being said to me and how I could ever think up a worthy response for said teenage boy. Well I didn’t have to think about that very long, before I knew it a curve which felt like it appeared out of nowhere, was unforgiving to my car. I went right through the curve, right through a fence, and right through two trees. When people say that their life flashes before their eyes in circumstances like these, they are not lying. It felt like slow motion driving through someone's yard while I could hear my sister’s scream piercing my ears. Everyone was fine and we got out without a scratch, but I kept thinking for nights upon nights, what if everyone wasn’t fine? What if I would have been the cause of ending someone's life, someone so young, someone that had so much left to offer the world. Getting out of the car I felt I was in a trance, the euphoria of being alive felt so unreal. Being less than one foot away from colliding with a massive oak tree, I felt so lucky, so relieved - that is until I saw my now totaled car. If I wouldn’t have gone through the most terrifying night of my life, I can say with full confidence that I never would have learned. I consider this my biggest failure to date, I failed my parents, I failed my sister, and most of all I failed myself. I learned the biggest lesson you can probably learn that day, which was that life is fragile and every day you get to wake up is a blessing and should not be taken for granted.
I now know that it can happen to anyone at anytime, I seek to share my personal experiences in order to help others to not reach the same outcome that I did. I want people to drive safely and truly understand the consequences if they do drive unsafely.
Steps that I can take and have implemented myself to be a better and safer driver would be to simply put the “Do Not Disturb” function on my phone while I am driving. I have set it up to where if anyone tries to contact me, they automatically get a text that I am driving and will answer as soon as I get to my destination. Music is also very important for my focus while driving so I make sure to put a playlist that I like on before I put my car in drive. This helps me by taking away the temptation to look at my phone, in a day and age like we are living in it is hard not having that technology with you at all times, but these things make it easy and I suggest others to do the same. Something I can do to help others to drive safely is to share my story, some people just need to hear it from someone it happened to, to truly understand what the consequences of their actions may be. I also share my driving techniques with others because what helped me, could help save someones life.