When Trooper Andrew P. Winzenread exited his car on April 25th, 1997, I often wonder if there was something in his gut telling him not to get out of the vehicle. If his heart was whispering that maybe he should abandon the stranded motorist on the side of I-74 rather than assist them. If his head was reminding him of how he told his wife and daughter he loved them before he left for work that morning. If his body was telling him how much those around him loved him when the semi-tractor trailer crashed into him, killing him instantly. Today, I drive by a wooden cross adorned with a Trooper hat on my way to my grandparents house. I wonder if anyone pays attention, if anyone notices the hat with no Trooper to wear it. Does anyone truly notice how those who are first to arrive in the event of a car crash have the same odds as any other driver?
Andrew is one of many Indiana State Troopers who have been killed in the line of duty, another name in the 23 fallen officers whose deaths have been related to a vehicle in one way or another. If the drivers of the vehicles who have harmed these fallen troopers had not gone through with the choices they made that particular day, perhaps some of our troopers would still be with us today. Driving is not something that you can guess at. There is no guessing when it comes to putting your hands on the wheel, nor the decisions you make when you are behind the wheel itself. Every choice and factor you make within your life impacts how you will perform when driving, and these choices affect the outcome of our life and others. Implementing driver’s education allows for these kinds of decisions to be impacted more positively, and it allows drivers to understand the power their choice holds when they put their hands at nine and three o’clock.
My father, and Indiana State Trooper himself, always taught me that when you drive, you must always be offense and defense at the same time. He was right. On our roads, you cannot assume that other drivers are aware of what they are doing. While this is a hard reality to face, the idea of making driver’s education more accessible could lessen the amount of drivers who may truly not know what they are doing. They may mistake the freedom of driving for a protection that does not truly exist. Accessibility of driving education would allow for the idea that perhaps other people do know what they are doing when they close their driver door. In my small home town, only one high school was able to provide a driving school program, which forced many other students from the surrounding high schools to rely on other ways to receive their driving education. Being able to provide an after-school program for all students, with experienced teachers, and even lower costs could bring a lower number of those who take their freedom for granted on the roads we drive on.
The accountability for the choices we make as drivers is something that is crucial when it comes to driving. While accepting accountability and responsibility for our actions behind the wheel may be difficult, it can be something that allows all of us to become better drivers. The idea that mistakes define who we are can be a challenging idea to grasp at. This does not mean that those of us who have made mistakes behind the wheel need to be ostracized by those around us. Straying from one another will only reinforce the idea that our mistakes define the kind of person we are: good and bad. These qualities do not exist in a singular view, rather, there are multiple perspectives on one singular view which can give more balance to the way we view things. Having empathy and even discussing actions and consequences made by ourselves and others when it comes to driving can allow for a more open discussion of what being behind the wheel truly means to one another.
28 years ago an Indiana State Trooper left his vehicle and was killed instantly by a driver who made a choice. A choice that impacted lives, not just a singular person. Those who are sworn to protect us, those who serve our states, they are just as little protected as we are when teens and young adults drive on any road. No one is immune to what driving can bring, but no one is also immune to drivers education and the impact it can have on someone’s life. By providing the accessibility needed, while also instilling how responsibility and empathy coincide, more than one innocent life could be spared. I-74 bears a cross of a man who only did what his training taught him to do, and every day is one where I pray my father does not become a cross on the side of a road. A choice can always be made, and there is always a choice in which a life can be saved. Remember that when you drive by one of those crosses on the side of the road next time.