Preventing Tragedies: The Need for Safe Driving Awareness

The first time driving by yourself for any teenager is a strange and exciting experience. It feels like the world is yours and for the first time you can finally see the world without a veil on it. You finally had a chance to go to all of the places you wanted or needed to go in your childhood where your parents told you “no” or “I’m too busy”. However, many forget with this new found independence comes great responsibility. As my grandmother would tell me before leaving her house with a huge hug “don’t end up dead like my brother.” These words would always remind me that as I put my hands behind the wheel I was responsible for myself and everyone around me. I never had the chance to meet my grandmother’s brother, Jimmy, as he was killed in a hit and run by drunk drivers on his way home. But in this tragic event my family had a newfound respect for driving. A death in the family should not be the reason to take safe driving seriously.

Driving education is a crucial part of keeping stories like Jimmy’s from happening again. On average thirty-seven people in the United States die daily as a result of drunk driving or one person every thirty-nine minutes all due to something that can be prevented. In 2022 alone there were 13,524 deaths from drunk driving (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2019). The way to stop these devastating accounts is through spreading awareness of the need for safe driving. This can be through joining a driving education course, spreading awareness through social media, or attending local events and fundraisers. Educating people about safe driving practices could have stopped all these countless deaths. Admitting before you put the key in the ignition that you are not safe to drive is crucial in saving lives. A common misconception about impaired driving is that alcohol must be involved. Impaired driving may involve the lack of sleep, use of illicit drugs, prescription medication, or alcohol. You can save a life just by being able to spot these signs in yourself and the ones around you. Every time someone drives while under the influence they roll the dice if they ever return home. Don’t allow yourself or your loved ones to take this risk. Either call an uber, get a ride from a loved one, or stay where you are until you are safe to drive. Save a life, don’t drive impaired.

The promotion of driving education especially in adolescents is crucial in reducing driving related deaths and injuries. Studies from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that drivers from the age of sixteen to nineteen years old are at the greatest risk of car crashes out of any other age group. Furthermore, Car crashes are the leading cause of teen deaths in the United States with approximately 2,800 teens killed and 227,000 injured in 2020 (CDC, 2024). I personally know two high school students who got pulled over for reckless driving and I am very thankful they did not become another statistic. One was documented driving twenty-nine miles over the speed limit and the other got pulled over driving twenty-five miles over the speed limit in a residential area. They both received thirty hours of community service, increased auto insurance, and possible suspension of their driving license if pulled over within a year. One key factor between these students is that they were not enrolled in any drivers education class. In order to have safer roads we must as a society push educating adolescents of the dangers of driving. The students I just described placed themselves and others in harm’s way because they did not comprehend the consequences of speeding. Truly educating the future drivers of America is not just showing the legal repercussions of being caught driving recklessly or impaired. Its through showing the devastating effects on families in their area: the lives lost, the tears shed, and lives forever altered. This can not be understood from reading from a textbook nor this essay but through talking to someone in person who has experienced this devastating loss.

In order to stop this metaphorical epidemic of deaths we need to spread knowledge about the need for safe driving. Safe driving consists of wearing a seat belt, not driving impaired, removing distractions, and respecting the law. The first step in making sure Jimmy’s story doesn’t repeat is to spread the knowledge of safe driving and keeping our loved ones accountable. Share your story with the world so that our future generation of drivers can learn to be safe drivers without experiencing a loss of a best friend or loved one.