Driver Education Initiative – You Survive When You Safe Drive

Meghan
Masden

Senior
in High School

From
Cambridge, Maryland

You Survive When You Safe
Drive

When I was 11 years old I had
the opportunity to drive my first vehicle, and no it wasn’t a car,
instead, it was a four-wheeler. I’m from Cambridge Maryland, a
small town that contains a lot of country life around it. As a
result, my childhood best friend lived in the country and I would
always go to her house. For Christmas one year her father had gotten
a four-wheeler for her as a gift because she had been begging him for
one for years. When I came over she was so excited to show me and
take me out for a ride. We road all around in the woods and at first
it was a scary thought but it soon became very fun. About a month
later after begging and pleading for her to let me drive it around by
myself, she finally let me. I was having a blast until I had to make
a sharp turn or else I was going to run into a tree and as I was
turning the four-wheeler flipped over and I fell. Luckily there were
only some minor scrapes and bruises but it could have been a lot
worse, especially if the four-wheeler had fallen directly on top of
me.

Fast forward four years later,
at the age of 15 and nine months, in the state of Maryland teens are
eligible to get their permit. Taking the permit test isn’t what had
scared me, but getting behind the wheel for the first time had me
sweating with nerves. I was now going to be driving a much bigger
vehicle than just the four-wheeler and although I knew it was a lot
safer to it because it had more protection, it still made me nervous
that something could potentially go wrong causing me to get severely
hurt. My parents started me off with practicing in a big open parking
lot where there weren’t any cars or anything for me to bump into.
With practice, my nerves slowly stopped as I got the hang of it and
became safer in my car.

About two months before I was
eligible to get my provisional license, I was required to take a
drivers education class. Taking this class was not only mind-opening
to me but the other individuals that were in the class as well. The
reason why is because they showed us videos of people that have
gotten into car accidents due to, drinking and driving, texting while
driving, being distracted and so many other reasons. By showing
people these kinds of videos it makes them truly be careful and look
at all of their surroundings when driving. Showing students at a
young age, right before they start driving, enhances the chance at
them being more cautious and careful when driving then if you were to
show adults. Once a person drives so much, it can be hard to break
bad habits such as texting while driving, or even eating can be just
as dangerous because once a person takes their eyes off the road,
even if it’s just for a second, then something dramatic could
happen just like that.

Instead of waiting until
students decide to go to a drivers education class and watch those
kinds of videos, schools should create a safe driving awareness day.
This day could include videos of what safe driving looks like, but
also real-life scenarios of what happened to people when they were
not driving safe on the road. The school could also create an
activity for students in which they create their own scenarios, or
they could even share a personal story of their own of someone they
knew that got into a car accident. By having students share their own
stories, it can create more of a personal connection with their peers
because their peers are more likely to take it to the heart than if
it was just an adult telling them the dangers of not being a safe
driver.

Besides the four-wheeler
incident I had, I personally have not been in a car accident but my
dad has. My dad used to work the night shift from 11 pm-7 am, at a
juvenile detention facility, on the weekends as a side job. One
morning as he was coming home he had at some point dozed off at
wheel. As a consequence, he slammed into the guard rail that’s in
the middle of the road to separate the traffic. Luckily, he was okay
and there wasn’t anyone around that he could have potentially ran
into and injured them but the situation could have been a lot worse.
Imagine if there were people around if he was going a lot faster than
he was, if he had gotten hurt and put in the hospital. There were so
many possible options that could’ve happened but he got lucky, some
people, however, aren’t so lucky. There was a case many years ago
where a lady had fallen asleep at the wheel driving across the Bay
Bridge in Maryland. A truck driver noticed she had fallen asleep and
was driving to move out of the way so nobody would get hurt, but in
the process of him avoiding her, he had slid off the bridge and into
the water. Because of the lady’s restless driving, a man lost his
life.

I am now 17 years old and have
been driving on my own for a year now. When I have friends that are
being careless when driving I tell them that story. I tell them how
crucial it is that they aren’t on their phones, that if they are
driving late at night and feel tired to pull over and call someone.
Putting not only their lives in danger but other people’s lives in
danger to are the most selfish thing a person can do. When people get
into a car accident and people either get hurt, severely hurt, or
even die, it not only affects them, but it affects their family,
their peers, if they had a job that job is now down a person, it can
even make towns recreate the way the road was constructed in the
first place. If towns see that there are a lot of accidents happening
at a certain intersection then they may put in something such as a
round-about to help protect the cars passing by. For myself
personally, I try and always turn off my phone when I get in the car
unless I need it for a GPS. This way, by turning my phone off, I
won’t even be tempted to look at it if I get a notification. I try
to always maintain the speed limit and never go too fast even if some
people tell you to “keep up with traffic,” I will rather be safe
then sorry. When talking to my friends, I always tell them to be safe
while driving once they leave and if I see them being reckless I will
call them out on it. If I lost any of my friends I wouldn’t know
what I’d do with myself, so I rather inform them of what they are
doing that could potentially cause an accident, then ignore it and
something go completely wrong. As the old saying always goes, “if
you see something, say something” even if you saying something
results in people getting upset, being upset is better than not being
here at all. Everyone is loved, and everyone matters to be a part of
this world and to die of natural causes, not because someone was
being reckless while driving.