A New Found Freedom

A New Found Freedom

Edan Yager

Let’s take a minute and pretend it is the day before your thirteenth birthday. You would want tomorrow to come as fast as possible so you can finally earn the title of ‘teenager’ and not be a child anymore. What you may not realize, however, is how much responsibility comes with the title of being a ‘teenager’. Being a driver is the exact same concept. You have this new found freedom, a fun thing you have been waiting so long for, you passed all these tests, and now it is time for you to take responsibility; you have to take responsibility for your own actions as well as act responsibility in the presence of others’ irresponsibility. We as a society need to be educated on our own driving habits and the habits of other drivers around us. Driver education is essential in our efforts to reduce the number of deaths from driving. Through driver education, we become more aware of the hazards, consequences of irresponsible driving, and what to do if you are in a situation with an irresponsible driver.

This past July, I was driving down the street, scanning as I went along, safely in a line of other cars, on my way to my summer job at Camp Talooli. As I got up to the side street that connected to the main street I was making my way down, the car, which had been waiting at the stop sign (since the line of cars I was in had the right away), began to accelerate just as I was passing the side street. Like anyone in my position would do I pressed down on my steering wheel honking the horn and took not even a moment in the less than a second I had to shuffle through my options. Telephone polls, houses, and railroad signs lined my side of the street leaving me no way to get out of the way of the car coming towards me in slow motion nor the car following me. Knowing I had no options at that point since there was no time for me to stop with the car behind me, everything started in slow motion, I saw the red Ford drift into my lane, got as far on the shoulder as I could slowing down just hoping she would somehow miss me. The crunch of the vehicles colliding and the sounds of tearing metal filled my ears as I continued to press on the horn and grip the steering wheel until my knuckles were white doing everything I could to not hit a telephone pole or a road sign. The woman driving the Ford moved over, detaching the wrecked front of my car from the torn back fender of hers, allowing me to make it safely to the side of the road and her to pull over a ways ahead. The next thing I know the woman comes running back to my car in tears, a lit cigarette in her hand, and the rest of the pack in the other. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? I didn’t even see you coming”. After a second, the realization finally hit me I answered, telling her I was ok. I called my parents and the police to get everything sorted out breaking down hysterical in the process. What she said still plays on repeat through my head: I didn’t even see you coming. My question is did you not see me coming because you were too busy with the radio, reading a text message, getting out your phone, a lighter, or the cigarette in your hand?

Many actions have been taken to reduce the cases of substance use and abuse leading to impaired/distracted driving. We now have laws regulating what can and cannot be used when driving, how long you must wait before driving, legal limits of blood alcohol concentrations, etc. These measures have drastically cut down on the number of accident-related deaths as they have reduced the number of impaired drivers on the road. In fact, one of the top causes of fatal car accidents is drunk/impaired driving, while another is distracted driving; the recent increase in use of mobile technology has certainly aided in this fact. These efforts, although not eliminating the hazard all together have definitely reduced the number of fatal car accidents. We are also now seeing severe punishments for drunk and impaired driving some involving licenses being revoked, others possibly even involving jail time. Yet again, we can find a trend in deadly accidents with these regulations.

Overall, by becoming more aware of your surroundings, how your actions impact others, and how to become a defensive driver (anticipating others’ actions on the road) we can all hope to become better, safer drivers on the roads. Putting away technology and electronic devices is something we’re all told but get more comfortable and sometimes forget about, but a single moment of being distracted can mean the difference between life and death. Be proactive and bring a designated driver you know you can trust. Your life, everyone in the car’s life, and everyone’s life on the road is at stake every time you get in a car. If everyone does their part, hopefully, we all can do our part to create a safer society.