It’s Not Just a Car

It’s 4000 pounds traveling at 50 miles per hour. It’s not just a car. It’s four wheels that could take down an adult without second thought. It’s not just a car. Imagine what it would do to a child. It’s not just a car. Tens of thousands of people have died due to the machine. Are you still trying to say it’s just a car?

American mass media has painted getting a license, car, and driving as this right that every American should get when they turn 16. This same media stream has hidden away the responsibility that is tied with driving. While the media showcase the representation of freedom, society has really ignored what a car truly is, it’s not just a car, it’s a weapon.

Driver education needs improvement, because to be quite honest it does not exist. The only reason I know anything about driver safety is because of a couple of videos I had to watch before getting my permit, my parents, and a couple of commercials. That isn’t a training ground, that’s just a quick click or shoulder shrug away from making the same mistakes. Commercials on driver’s safety aren’t even showing anymore, between streaming services and trying to get teenagers off of vaping we’ve completely forgotten about drivers safety.

It’s been pressed into the brain to not drink and drive but simply taking the task seriously has been overlooked.

I have more than enough friends who drink underaged, it’s not something I engage in, but the common thing I hear is “We’re not stupid, we have someone else drive.” The sad thing is, those friends have all been in some accident, while sober. Society has already ingrained into teenage brains to not drink and drive, but simply teaching us how to drive has been overlooked.

One of my friends got into an accident and now she doesn’t like to make left turns anymore. The day my older sister got her car someone hit one of the side mirrors because they wanted to leave a lane too late. 9 days after that same sister got her license she almost rear ended someone because she was so passionately talking about something. The same sister snaps while she drives. I had another friend get into an accident while passionately singing one of her favorite songs, totally her car. One of my former co-workers got into a crash and had to total her jeep. I’ve had friends drive above the speed limit because they’re late to work. In fact more people I know drive as fast as they want, whenever they want than don’t.

Speeding tickets, accidents, rear ends, broken mirrors, and the common thing is the lack of driving education. Rather than taking it seriously, giving an option in schools, making a certain number of lessons at a driving school mandatory, the driving system has put it on parents and the honesty of the person learning. We need to take into context the seriousness of driving. It’s life or death!

Yet the biggest thing that people learning to drive have is they don’t really realize it’s not just their life. Driving recklessly might not just control your life, it could possibly end the life of another person, another family, or a little girl or boy.

When I was seven years old, before I was adopted, my family was walking to a park from a McDonalds. My brother at the time was five, and we were walking ahead, being little kids trying to walk in front of each other. It had been out right away, we were in the crosswalk, the little white light of a walking person was on the screen on our side. Little kids don’t always notice things like buses or cars racing towards them. My mother screamed and dropped all of our freshly ordered McDonalds on the floor and dashed forward spraining her ankle to get us out of the way of the speeding bus. At seven years old, I could’ve died.

That wouldn’t be the last time a car going too fast would almost hit me, it happened again when I was nine years old. They barely stopped in time not to hit me. When I looked up and the angry driver they had been on their phone.

I can’t help but think maybe if those cars had hit me they would have learnt something valuable about what they were driving. It’s not just a car, it’s a weapon.