To speak in a basic sense: driver education is vital to reducing driver deaths and injuries because we all need to speak the same language on the road in order to share it effectively. Things like speed limits, stop signs, stop lights, and other basic road signs come obvious to this discussion. But it is also knowing when you can and cannot turn out of a stop sign into a road. Its also knowing what to do when the power goes out and you’re left with blinking yellow and red lights instead of full traffic lights. With drivers education also comes habits to maintain safety such as defensive driving techniques. My father always told me, “You have to drive like you’re the only one who knows what’s going on.” I never understood it until I got on the road and had to save others from fixing my car by staying out of their way. Techniques such as looking left-right-left, or ensuring you check blind spots before getting over allow other drivers on the road to focus on themselves as you will not be encroaching on their right of ways. Driving education also allows young drivers to learn how to get on the road as well as keeping impaired drivers off the roads, if educated properly.
Coordinating human efforts is one of the more daunting tasks we could undertake, but there are various steps we could take on a larger scale to keep our roads safe. Firstly, I think that we can all put the phones down. Second, and as I mentioned earlier, education is vital to maintaining safety. I believe that young people are not the only ones who need education, however. Over time, it’s very likely that a driver will lose some of the knowledge they had when they first took their road and beginner’s tests. In order to ensure safety, I think we should make people re-educate themselves every two renewal cycles. In most states, this would mean that every 20 years, you have to take a driver’s test. I say that’s not bad! Not only do we lose knowledge over time, but laws change, people move to new areas with new laws, and updated technology requires new context for the rules of the road. Also, at a certain point we lose our abilities to drive with old age, a required test may show us elderly citizens who are no longer fit to drive—as sad as that day will be for those individuals—and keep our road with able and safe drivers. I think that maintaining the education of our drivers would play a vital role in enhancing our road safety, if implemented with care.
Personally, and thankfully, I have only been in one car accident. It was an accident that left me afraid to ride in a car and still sometimes comes to mind when I am on the road. However, I was asleep at the time of the collision, so I only experienced the aftermath. Irresponsible driving still has left a tremendous impact on me, through an experience I used to wish I could change. When I was 16 years old, my friends started to get their licenses and new cars while I was not able to due to having scoliosis surgery and focusing on my own recovery. Riding with friends during those early days were still some of my most fond memories. Oftentimes, we had no destination; we were just enjoying the sense of freedom we had gained. One day though, I was texting my friend, MaKhia, as she was on her way home from cheer practice. She was upset because the new director told her that if she didn’t fix her attitude, she would never make the competitive team and would only be waving pom-poms for the Junior Varsity games. I was watching a movie, so I did not call her, but I just wanted her to let her frustration out, so I made myself available to talk through text. As we were messaging, her responses ceased, and I figured that she had made it home and went to bed out of exhaustion. Until I messaged her the next morning and the message never delivered. Before school, they sent an e-mail to our parents that they had lost MaKhia. I don’t even remember the movie I watched instead of picking up the phone, but I will never forget how much more important the road is than anything occurring on my cellphone. Although ‘Don’t text & drive’ may seem a mundane warning to some, this experience brought forth a harrowing reality: lives get lost over a glance or a text message, and that truly means the end of everything.
My experience losing my friend is why I always text my people: “I’ll let you know when I arrive, talk to you soon,” before I depart in my car every time. I know the dangers of distracted driving, and the anxiety that can rest with someone awaiting a loved one to get home. I face these head on, even when people don’t understand why I am so insistent upon them. I am also known to ask: “Are you driving?”, in conversation and I am sure my friends may lie to me from time to time, but I am also sure they think twice about looking at their phone instead of the road. With the driving experience I have, I am sure we can be safer drivers if we keep our focus on our road and fellow drivers at all times behind the wheel.