Driving is a privilege, not a right. You aren't granted the right to be in charge of a giant metal box that can go up to 120 mph. Too many people my age do not understand the depth of what it means to drive, and what the responsibility is. I was 17 when I took driver's ed, I was a bit old for it, and my partners were hesitant to let me take the course. They immigrated here right before I was born, they raised us in a new land so they were paranoid about a lot of things, especially driving. My mother didn't get her license until she was 26 because she was scared of the road. So when I took the driver's ed I looked at all this newfound information and took it to heart.
They show you a variety of videos during driver's education. A lot of them are using ethos by showing grieving parents crying about their lost child in an accident. I won't lie they did hit a chord in me with all the tears of pain and suffering, it solidified all the fear I have for the road. But I think knowledge is power, the power of knowing that having a heated argument in the car can increase the chance of an accident, driving while sleep-deprived is just as dangerous as driving while impaired and that having a designated driver during outings is vital to prevent accidents.
I was never raised and allowed to attend normal American teenage parties, so I was never put in a position where I was in or near a teenage drunk driver. Yet I would hear stories about how my friends would go out and drive home high or drunk. I don't even feel scared for them. I feel more anger for how they are so careless or endanger other innocent lives. To my age group, the biggest culprits of accidents are drunk driving and reckless driving. There are too many stories I have heard of my peers bragging about how fast they go. When I come home from a hangout and go on the highway after 10 my stomach does a flip as I see cars fly by me when I am going the speed limit. I trust myself but I do not trust everyone else. I think what would reduce the amount of deaths in car accidents is doing a technique that France did. In France there used to be a rule that you had to have 2 breathalyzer tests in your car as well as the legal blood alcohol level is lower than in the US. There is too much normalization of alcoholism here, so I think lowering the legal blood alcohol content and normalizing having a breathalyzer would help to reduce the amount of drunk driving caused by accidents.
My father has struggled with holding his license because of the cause of alcohol usage. I have seen my family life change now that our breadwinner's license has been taken away, and now we struggle to get him to his job that provided for us. I saw my sister wake up in the middle of the night to take care of our brother while my mother bailed my father out of jail. I thank god that my father never hurt anyone during these incidents. But this is why I feel so strongly about the issue of drunk driving. I think there is a level of arrogance and selfishness that takes place for a person to know they have taken copious amounts of alcohol and still get on the road.
I am a talkative girl at heart, I love to talk and I love to make conversation. So when I am a passenger princess I tend to talk while the other person drives me around. But during driver's ed, I learned that excessive talking especially when the driver is trying to focus on unknown terrain can be dangerous. So the way I try to prevent car accidents is that my friends have a system where when I am talking their heads off they tell me, "Hold on, I need to focus." So then I stop talking and let them focus. If they need my help with the GPS or they need me to turn down the radio I try to prevent any distractions.
Teen car insurance is insanely higher for a reason, 250,000 teens are injured in car accidents usually from our fault. We are young, arrogant, and reckless. There are a thousand opportunities to get into an accident on the road. What we can do to prevent future deaths is do our part to be responsible. Sadly accidents happen, we lose control, and we slip hydroplanes, but we can do our part in being responsible humans.