The Importance of Accountability

I was thirteen when I walked into my childhood friend’s hospital room. She had been in a vehicle with six other people, the driver intoxicated. After the driver lost control of the car, they hit the center divider on one of the busiest highways in the Bay Area and my friend, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was ejected over twenty feet from the vehicle. When she hit the pavement, drivers on the highway thought that her body was a mannequin. Her injuries were extensive. Her pelvis, back, and both of her legs were broken. There was massive trauma to her brain along with numerous external injuries that ranged from small cuts to large lacerations. My dear friend, whom I had spent years playing Barbies and dress-up with, only had a small chance of survival.

When I saw her unconscious in the hospital bed, I was overcome with emotions. Up until that point, I had never understood how much physical trauma could be inflicted on the body by something that we do every day. Luckily, my friend, who is one of the strongest people I know, miraculously survived. She went on to graduate from high school and is now a wife and mother of two. She was one of the lucky ones. However, there are so many Americans from all walks of life who don’t have the same outcome as my friend. Many lose their lives or are left with scars both seen and unseen or fatally harm someone else.

The importance of driver education is imperative if we truly want to reduce the number of deaths as a result of driving. It’s critical for all drivers to see the rising numbers of deaths that are associated with driving and to understand how they can make an individual impact on lowering the number of deaths by simply making the right choices. We make these right choices by listening, learning, and paying attention. We do this by putting our phones on silent, getting enough sleep, promising ourselves and others to not drive under the influence, and putting our seatbelts on immediately after entering our vehicles. We do this by understanding that other people’s actions are just as important as our own. We not only have to make the right decisions, but we also have to be hypervigilant about those around us. In order to make these habits more prevalent in our daily lives, it’s important for us to learn about them when we’re younger.

When we get into our cars and head to our respective destinations, it’s important to remember that we’re all sharing the same road. And in that regard, it’s critical for us to not only look out for ourselves but to also look out for one another in equal measure. By learning about driver education from a younger age, bettering it as we continue to absorb more information through education and hands-on experience, and holding ourselves and other people accountable, we can truly begin to save lives.