Growing up in a small rural community, driving was essential for myself or anyone who wanted the freedom to be able to go to places more exciting than our local gas station or dollar store. I, myself, lived in the country about ten miles outside of the nearest town of which I attended school. As a child, I had a rotation of rides to get to town whether it was the school bus, my parents, or older siblings who had just gotten their driver licenses. Being able to drive was a privilege I was so eager to earn in order to be able to have the freedom to take myself to school on my own terms and go into town to see my friends without inconveniencing someone else to give me a ride. However, the concept of driving had also always terrified me deep down. I did not want the feeling of being responsible for controlling a vehicle moving at speeds that could easily prove to be fatal if I make a single mistake. There had been plenty of evidence of how powerful and terrifying driving could be just within my community. My father had slipped his pickup into the ditch a couple of times giving me rides home from school on days where he had been driving but not paying full attention to the road. My brother’s high school basketball team’s bus slipped on an icy curve and flipped onto its side while they were heading to a game. Of course, the conditions of the road could not be helped, but if the bus driver had taken more steps to drive safely such as slowing down on icy curves, the accident could have been avoided. Fortunately, no one had lost their lives, but I can still see the memory of my brother laying, mangled in a hospital bed to this day. He had to have procedures done to his face to repair his eye socket and orbital bone. It took my brother a long time to recover from the trauma of the vehicular accident and that left a lasting impact on me.
Once I became of age, I attended my local driver’s education class. It caused me to realize that driving is a privilege that we should appreciate and respect as adults. The goal of driving is to get you and your passengers from point A to point B safely. Through the class, I was able to realize that I could be a responsible driver who would always get in the car with an intention to abide by all traffic rules and drive cautiously. Most of my peers seemed to feel as though driving was a responsibility and not something to be taken lightly at the time of the class as well.
After about a year of passing the driver’s education class with my peers, we began to take our driver’s tests and earn the freedom of being able to drive ourselves wherever we wanted. Our town only has a population of about 1,000 people, and it does not contain a single stoplight. Driving in our town was easy, especially since there was hardly any traffic at all. However, due to the ease of driving, I watched many of my peers begin to drive recklessly. I would see my friends driving with their knees during lunch or speeding sixty-five plus miles per hour on a poorly maintained road set at fifty. Sometimes, I would get rides from my friends, and they would drive carelessly. They did not pay attention while driving and would use their phones, drive over the speed limit, and not stop at stop signs. My brother advised me to not take rides from people who drove immaturely and without respect for themselves, others on the road, and the passengers in their car. So, I only offered to give rides instead of taking them in high school because many teenagers do not understand the implications that come with driving and the great responsibility that comes with it.
Eventually, by the time I had reached my senior year in high school, many of my peers had already been in some sort of vehicular accident. For some, it was minor such as sliding into the ditch but only scratching their car, but some others had totaled their vehicles were lucky to be without any grave injuries. Most of those accidents could have been prevented by safe driving, but many young people do not stop to consider the long-term risks and implications of careless driving. I learned from an early age that driving can be dangerous if the driver is not cautious due to that bus crash directly affecting my family’s lives. However, not everyone has something like that happen to them before they get their driver’s license. When learning to drive, we had speakers share their own personal stories of their loved ones getting into car crashes, but many of those stories went forgotten by my peers. I made a promise to myself when I first started learning to drive that I would take my time each instance I got into the car to be a defensive driver who obeyed all traffic rules. I believe that it comes down to the people who teach the youth how to drive. Driving safely is not only a choice we make each time we get in the driver’s seat, but it should be a habit as well. Often, we see driving as a fun and exciting coming-of-age milestone. It should still be treated as such, but we need to stress further that it is a responsibility that comes with risks each time you start up an engine. Not only are drivers responsible for themselves, but they are responsible for their passengers, pedestrians, and other drivers on the road.