The Imortance

The
Importance

By:
Madelyn Wolfe

Remember
the day when you turned sixteen and you were filled with that inner
excitement of finally earning freedom to drive? Oh, the adventures
you were about to have! Or maybe it was a few months after you turned
sixteen because you just too were nervous. It was something you’d
never done before, of course driving was scary! Either circumstance,
you had just achieved another milestone, a new chapter in your life.
However, imagine if that day you had zero knowledge of how to drive.
You were basically handed your driver’s license. You would have
zero knowledge about how to operate a vehicle under your own control.
You would have zero knowledge about the extreme the dangers of being
drunk behind the wheel were. You would have zero knowledge about the
deadly risk of glancing down at a text message while driving was. All
of these instances lead to a higher risk of car collisions. Therefore
if no one knew of the collision risk while driving, every single car
accident would be because of complete ignorance, not because of
stupidity.

Many
steps can be taken to reduce the threat of dying while on the road.
It is so important for people to understand that when they are
driving, they are in control of a vehicle that weighs more than
themself. The responsibility relies solely on whoever is behind the
wheel, so people need to recognize the risks of being distracted and
even the risk of having rage control you while on the road. For new
drivers, it is important to learn through drivers ed and
through the experience itself. The information learned through books
can inform you about rules on the road and can make you aware of
certain hazards on the road that you may have not known about before.
Consistently getting the experience of driving with someone who
already knows how to drive trains you to become a more confident and
safer driver. New drivers are given the opportunity to learn and to
adapt to all sorts of situations on the road through experience and
guidance from their elders, so that they are ready and prepared for
when it is time to get their license. Fortunately, neither my family
nor myself have been involved in a car crash. By staying off my
phone, eliminating all distractions and just simply understanding
that I was responsible for controlling my car has helped me be a
safer and smarter driver.

When
we were sixteen, some of us were shaking from nerves or overly
excited with joy, but it was so incredibly critical for us all to
have the proper knowledge before we even stepped foot in a car at
sixteen because with trained teenagers on the road, driving lessons
would not be learned through the trauma of being rushed to the
hospital.