My Dad’s Inside Joke

Growing up, my sister and I had an inside joke with our dad. When we’d get in a car, he wouldn’t buckle his seatbelt right away, and we’d pester him to do it until he finally gave in to his two giggling daughters. Looking back on this, I realize something: my dad, at age 65, grew up in a world where cars and the knowledge about their dangers was far lower than what I grew up with.

When my dad was young, cars didn’t have seatbelts. When my dad was young, cars didn’t have airbags. When my dad was young, he worked on a farm, and he started driving tractors when he was 12 years old.

In the 65 years my dad has been alive, the improvements that have been made to ensure that people are driving in safer vehicles, and utilizing safer practices when driving, are vast. In stark contrast to my dad, I got to grow up knowing that the first thing to do when I get in a car is buckle my seatbelt. I got to grow up trusting that if I get in an accident, an airbag increases my chances of being okay. I learned how to drive at the age of 15, in the environment of a driver’s education classroom. That’s a lot of safety precautions that I got to have that my dad didn’t. But, it doesn’t negate the fact that driving is still a dangerous undertaking, and far too many people that I know don’t treat it with the gravity they should.

On a personal level, I think that to help myself be a safer driver, I need to remember that every single time I get behind a wheel, I’m taking other people’s lives into my hands. This requires the responsibility and respect for others to be responsible on the road.

However, the number of times I’ve gotten in a car only to have a friend be texting for the entire drive is scary. The number of times I’ve had “almosts”, where an accident has been narrowly avoided because I was driving tired, or not paying enough attention, is scary. The number of times my school’s community was rocked by an accident in high school where a student was killed or seriously injured was too many.

I think that the way to help students understand the importance of being a safe driver is to tell them the stories of people who have experienced tragedy behind the wheel. While these stories are gut-wrenching, it forces young drivers like myself to tap into our empathy, and want to ensure that our friends, family, and peers stay safe on the road.

Driver’s education plays an incredibly important role in this. By providing students the numbers, as well as personal stories about real people who have been affected by tragedy, driver’s education holds a great power to reduce the number of deaths on the road, especially when it comes to young people.