Being and awake wheel dude

When thinking about what can save your life when you get behind the wheel of a car, it should come as no surprise that being educated is a huge factor. I started driving early in life; my parents believed that if you start small, like with a bicycle, and work your way up to motor vehicles, you will be a much safer driver overall. Learning safe driving habits young is critical to becoming a safer driver. I had experienced many low-speed bike and motorcycle crashes and had more or less mastered this level of driving before ever being allowed behind the wheel of a car. This also helped with learning in driver’s ed because I had a good understanding of how vehicles work. My driver’s ed teacher was terrific. He had seen firsthand the danger of automobiles and was committed to making a safer and better-educated driving population. First, he took away the illusion of immunity that most young drivers have and showed us firsthand how fast your life or another’s can end when you drive unsafely. We watched videos in class that showed the devastation of high-speed car accidents and what happens when inattentiveness or lack of control causes irreversible damage. If I hadn’t taken driver’s ed, I wouldn’t be as cautious with vehicles; as a side note, fear isn’t the answer to safer driving. Being terrified of all the dangers around you can make you more accident-prone, but being a respectful and aware driver will save your life and others.

I want to share an experience I had while driving a 15-passenger van for my job as a summer camp counselor at Parks and Recreation. We were returning home on the interstate on a hot summer day, and we had spent most of the day in Boise, Idaho, at Wahoos. On the way home, I was behind the wheel and driving the speed limit for this interstate which happened to be 80 miles per hour. On our drive, I noticed an abnormal sound, like the windows on the left side of the vehicle were shaking and making a thumping sound. But as a more experienced driver of these vans, I assumed it was just the seal on the window (they were older vans). However, it was not the seal on the window but rather a nail in our back left tire. As I passed a Semi truck, the back tire exploded rather spectacularly. The van began to drift around the interstate and threatened to topple over, which likely would have killed me and my 12 children passengers. Luckily I remembered an important lesson my father had taught me with ATVs on dirt roads. The lesson was how to countersteer a vehicle to reduce drift and regain control. I was able to do this while slowing down, resulting in the van not toppling and also not running into the semi-truck that I had been trying to pass. If my father had not taught me how to countersteer and had panicked instead, I’m afraid that I and my 12 passengers would have been another sad statistic of driving deaths. We are not immortal; our lives can end in an instant. Because of that, we need to be aware of the danger we can cause if we lack attentiveness while driving. I learned from this experience that it’s much easier to slow down and check your vehicle when you hear a strange noise than it is to drift a van to safety because of an exploded tire.

As we all take the necessary steps to improve our driving each day, I’m sure we will continue to see a downward trend in the driving fatalities statistics. Our biggest enemy in driving is overconfidence. It doesn’t matter how good of a driver you think you are, it only takes one drunk driver or one exploded tire to humble you in an instant. The best thing that we can do to keep ourselves and each other alive while driving to me, at least, are these; be aware of all vehicles around you, don’t drive while intoxicated, always wear a seatbelt, do a sound check or all four tires as well as fluids in your car before you take off, always look for accident escape routes/ have a plan for your response to a collision or unexpected breaking, maintain a reasonable following distance, adjust your mirrors, and slow your roll. I hope that something I said helps you. If you can learn from other people’s mistakes without making them yourself, you are so far ahead of the game. Remember to always respect your fellow drivers. Stay safe, my friends!