Parker Hastie
Drivers ed
Initiative Award Essay
November 29, 2019

It was 2:00 am.
Driving down the highway back from a concert. Wait, scratch that. It
was definitely 2:30, pushing 3:00. We were dead tired. Shotgun I sat,
next to my roommate behind the wheel. Music bumping to keep us
(mainly him) awake, we made our way back through the blisteringly
dark night, comforted by the occasional streetlight, as we bore
through the hills of the Ozarks, yearning to return to our XL-twin
sized beds.

We traveled further, and were nearly ten minutes out. Shooting past a
rocky highway cliff wall, we approached a relatively barren stretch
of highway, dark autumn forests on either side. “Ah, almost back,”
we probably all simultaneously thought. My eyelids grew heavier, the
longing for my bed grew stronger, and my alertness consequently began
to dwindle.
Suddenly, out of the
highway-adjacent void, lunged a massive buck. Roughly 300 pounds of
fur, antlers, and powerful innocence came bounding towards the
mint-green Prius. My life flashed before my eyes, and looking back,
it is astonishing just how many thoughts went through my mind in
those intense few seconds. Our eyes gazed upon the outstretched hoofs
and protruding jet-black snout leaping over asphalt, seemingly inches
from the vehicle. My roommate braked hard, and just as quickly as he
had appeared, the buck exited our vision, narrowly missing our car.
Thankfully, my
roommate is a competent and alert driver, even though our groggy
demeanors were not necessarily conducive for that. We weren’t
distracted on our phones, and we were so close to our destination, so
we were as alert as we could be, anticipating the warm embrace our
covers and pillows would shortly bring us. I truly believe that these
factors played a huge part in saving our lives that night. I had
always been taught, and heard from parents and advertisements the
importance of safe driving. This incident, or near-incident, caused
me to realize for myself the massive importance that safe-driving
habits hold in any driver’s life.
It goes to show that
drivers ed is vital to the safety of all drivers. If my
roommate had not ever been instructed to be alert, especially at
night in an area infamous for wildlife that play late-night Frogger,
we would have awfully become a statistic. So, I think continued
education that would be a critical step in reducing the death total.
And making that education easily acceptable in places like social
media advertisements. Another simple step that can be taught in these
promotions, but can also help me personally be a better and safer
driver is to put one’s phone on “Do Not Disturb.” This way,
even if someone’s phone is on silent and they have their
notifications set to vibrate, they will not come through. No
notification is worthy of your attention while driving. If it’s an
important message, the sender needs to understand that safety
supersedes reply speed. Whatever it takes to stay alert… watch out
for deer.