Trusting Strangers

Cars come in all shapes and sizes. But all of them are huge dangerous machines zipping down the road rather fast; each driver in them dependent not only on what driving skills and education they, themselves possess—but also the other driver’s driving alongside them. Cars could be violent weapons—big hunks of metal that easily kill people every day—However everyday people use them, and we, as drivers trust that these strangers alongside us go through the same process of driver’s education and receiving the privilege of a license. Furthermore, we trust other drivers share the desire not to harm themselves, let alone damage their expensive machine—thus the rules of the road enable a large population of people to efficiently travel via the safest technique.

My mother is in a wheelchair for the rest of her life, since 2005, because we assumed that an individual driving in the fast lane, that night in May, was not only licensed, but also followed the same process of attaining a driver’s education in order to obtain that license. At 49-years old my mother had never had an accident, but lacking a license nor proper driving education—the 20-year old criminal who chose to zoom across 4 lanes at once smashed into my mom’s new car up an embankment and rolling her car and her back down, catalyzing a 5-car pileup on the 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa, CA. Not more than 2 blocks away was where I lived. On the way to the hospital, the accident and scene produced was horrifying. The freeway was completely stopped- and my mom’s car upside down destroyed with its door ripped off by the ‘jaws-of-life’ not more than minutes prior. It was my senior year of high school and at the moment, witnessing the ruins of metal twisted and gnarled together on the freeway below- I honestly thought I lost my mom and would be alone at my graduation ceremony and for the rest of my life—as I am an only-child.

Not only was the perpetrator unlicensed, but he of course was uninsured and it wasn’t even his car. My mom could of easily died—as so many do every day. It was then that I realized how dangerous vehicles actually are—and also how our DMV system, licensing requirements, and driver’s education is more important than we give it credit. For you it may look easy to drive—but the rest of the road is trusting you not to kill them and being educated of the system we have established is there to protect us in the most organized way possible. Young and new drivers I think may not be fully aware of just how dangerous their shiny new cars can be. If the significance of vehicle’s potential for harming their drivers or others is emphasized alongside driver’s education and an explanation that this is the reason, we follow these rules—more would be inclined to pay attention.