Imagine this scenario; you and your friends earlier in the day plan to go to this party at somebody’s house. Everybody is excited, deciding what they should wear and talking about all the drama surrounding different people going to the party. After you all discuss it for a bit, you go your separate ways to prepare for the party. Thinking about if your crush will be there or if your nemesis will show up or not, laughing about all the fun you will have with your friend group and of course you are excited to get drunk! After preparing, the time finally comes and you drive down to the person’s house where the party will be at.You get greeted by the host and then you see your friends already in there having fun and beginning to dance. You join them shortly and begin playing drinking games, dancing, and talking amongst each other. You think to yourself that this is the best night ever and how much fun you are having. By the end of the night, after all the drama, after all the dancing, and after all the drinking; you become very tired and drained. Mostly everyone is gone besides a few people and you decide to call it a night. You say your farewell and wave goodbye to your friend who seems incredibly intoxicated. You tell them that you’ll see them tomorrow. Except you wouldn’t. You call your uber and you head back home. The next morning you wake up late for school because of your hangover and in a panic and a cold sweat you try to rush to get ready. But, your grogginess keeps you from doing much. Your mom comes running in with tears in her eyes as she hangs up the call she was on. You look at her confused wondering why she is upset. You feel the dread fill the room and you hear the most chilling of things; “your friend died last night.” There will be no more seeing them tomorrow.No more partying late at night. No more after school hangouts with them. All that remains is a sense of emptiness which your friend once filled. You thought to yourself,”they said they would be careful”, “they said not to worry”, “they said they were a safe driver” but none of that mattered. Because in the end, none of what you thought could have saved him.

This scenario could have been any one of us in various forms. The effect of drinking and driving is catastrophic. Not only on the person but everyone around them. This is why driving education is so important. It's in place to prevent situations like this and other experiences that come with driving in general. According to a study by the University of Nebraska, “A new study that followed more than 150,000 teen drivers over eight years has found that driver's education significantly reduces crashes and traffic violations among new drivers.Young drivers who have not completed driver's education are 75 percent more likely to get a traffic ticket, 24 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal or injury accident and 16 percent more likely to have an accident, the study showed.Those findings challenge more than three decades of assumptions about the value of driver's education. After an early 1980s study that questioned the effectiveness of driver's education classes, many states quit paying for those programs. Some insurance companies discontinued offering premium discounts for driver's education.” This shows how much urgency needs to be put on driving education and how important it is to the American public. In my experience with driver education, I only started to learn driving education after highschool which I took online. So many students rarely studied, rarely paid attention, and would even cheat on the test and would still pass the class! Even when it comes to logging your driving hours it was easy to just lie about the amount of hours you got. I feel as if driver education is still not taken as seriously ] and that mindset needs to change. The National Highway Safety Administration reports that ”The agency estimates that 40,990 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2023”

Now what can you do to prevent this number from rising? For starters you should always drive defensively. You must pay attention to EVERYTHING that happens around you at all times. If you're too tired to focus don’t drive at all or pull over and rest to the point where you feel comfortable driving again. You should maintain a safe following distance from people and always slow down and yield when needed. Also, make sure you have your seatbelt on at all times. Lastly, always obey traffic signals and signs. Furthermore, states should create transportation policies to increase safety and awareness of vehicle crashes. According to the CDC this should include things like, Primary Seatbelt Laws, Alcohol impaired driving countermeasures, lower speed limits and other efforts to reduce speeding within communities, and increasing support and funds for technology that is improving the safety of motor vehicles(CDC Transportation Recommendations).

Luckily I haven't been in a situation where I was drinking or driving and I never got into a fatal car crash. However, I have gotten into many crashes that could have been fatal. The fear of getting in a car and not knowing if it will be my last day made me afraid to even get my license. On Top of that I have friends who have died in crashes due to the other drivers drinking or lack of experience driving. Going from seeing my friends every day to not seeing them at all is one of the worst feelings ever. Watching my friends turn into a statistic was definitely hard on me especially when it could have been prevented with proper education and an increase in safe driving practices. The scenario I gave earlier, could truly happen to anyone but with proper education and acknowledgment of the issue it can be prevented. Although I am fearful of driving, this fear has helped me to make sure I take the time I need to get all my hours and to study on all the aspects of the road. The key to this is to take your time and not to rush to get your car. I know getting a car is enticing and you want it as quick as possible. But, trust me. It isn’t worth you or your friend's life. By taking the time in learning Driver’s Ed we can prevent the death rate by a large margin.In conclusion, I can’t do this alone but with the help of everyone reading this, we can make a difference in the world.
We don’t have to be a statistic.