Life In The Slow Lane

Drivers ed Initiative Award – Summer 2019

Name: Andre Vincent Butzberger
From: Scottsdale, Arizona
Votes: 56

Growing
up, my mother repeated one refrain whenever we were driving. 
“The faster you drive, the bigger the crash and the more deadly
the accident.” This idea seemed intuitive enough and stuck with
me as I began learning to drive myself. 

Later
a high school physics lesson solidified this wisdom through a simple
formula: Kinetic Energy = ½ Mass times Velocity squared. The
variable that most significantly impacts kinetic energy is velocity.
When applied to driving: decreasing speed can exponentially reduce
fatal accidents.

According
to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
speeding
causes nearly one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities. A Consumer
Reports study also found that higher speed limits are connected to an
increased rate of fatalities.

This,
as well as the fact that teenage boys are suckers for speed, made my
mom determined to educate me in all aspects of driving. And based on
the look of terror on her face when we drove together, she was not
the person to do it. 

There
were a few other motivations behind her decision. After the dangers
of driving hit close to home, my mom truly believed that my life and
the lives of others, were worth the investment in the class.

Here’s
what happened. Our neighbor and four friends were returning to
Scottsdale from a turnaround trip to Disneyland leaving little time
for sleep. She called her mother when she was 30 minutes away. That
was the last time they spoke. After the call, the van rolled over,
landing in a ditch. Two girls were killed. One was my neighbor. 

I
never really knew what caused the accident. Perhaps it was one or
more of the common causes of crashes? Were they all buckled in? 

Was
the driver speeding to get home?  Perhaps he was exhausted? 

So
while my friends posted photos with their licenses, I was enrolled
into a comprehensive course that required 100 hours of driving and
simulations  where I was able to safely experience multiple
scenarios. In one, a car speeded towards me from the wrong side of
the road, in another a tire popped on the freeway. 

I
learned a lot from both that tragic accident and my driver’s
education classes. And while I never really knew what caused the
accident, perhaps it was one or more of the common causes of
fatalities – tired drivers,  speeding to get home or unbuckled
passengers. What I did know that our neighbor’s heart was forever
broken by the loss.

I
realized that one of the most controllable factors when driving is
speed. While radar is an effective external way to discourage
speeding, increasing education for beginning drivers and
internalizing the fact that “speed kills,” can potentially
save thousands of lives each year. 

My
hope is that whenever we put the keys into the ignition, that we
would pause and repeat my mother’s mantra for all to hear. “The
faster you drive, the bigger the crash and the more deadly the
accident.”