Driving, the Forbidden Game of Bumper Cars

Driving, the Forbidden Game of Bumper Cars

Driver Education is something that most of the younger generation take for granted. It’s a great program that educates students on the importance of safe driving and how to drive safely to protect yourself and others around you when you are in a car. According to a study of 150,000 teenagers done by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, “2.1 percent of the driver’s education group was involved in an accident that caused injury or death, compared to 2.6 percent of those who did not take driver’s education”. Sure, 0.5 percent may not seem like a lot quantitatively, but that is an additional 166 teenagers whose lives could have been saved had they taken driver’s education. It’s a shame that we view DriversEd as something that we want ‘to get over with’ when the alternative could be fewer driving-related deaths per year – fewer lives taken that could have been avoided.

As someone who has been in 5 car accidents in a time period of 8 months, I can confidently say that I know how to drive safely. I learned. Albeit, 4 of the 5 accidents were not my fault, I learned to take small responsibilities in things I could have done to avoid them. This is why I have created a mnemonic to remember the key steps one must take to avoid car accidents and consequently, reduce the number of driving related deaths; BAD DR. NAD. Be predictable. Avoid Distractions. Drive Rested. No Alcohol and Drugs. Of course, my mnemonic might not work for everyone – it is a little bit of a mouthful. However, if everyone could make their own mnemonic to remember the key steps in safe driving, the roads would be a safer place. One must remember that there is no such thing as a ‘car accident’ for all car accidents can be avoided from either one or both sides. I was in 5 and I know that for some, it was completely out of my control, but for others, I could have slowed down or taken a safer path or even waited a couple of minutes for rush hour to cease before getting on the road. I was a young driver in a city that had no mercy for unseasoned drivers on the road.

It isn’t only important to take driver’s education but also to apply it to everyday life. I was one of the few students who studied the material deeply and paid attention in class, but I wasn’t able to protect myself and the people around me in my accidents because I had momentary lapses in judgement where I forgot the preventative measures. It didn’t matter that the other driver was drunk or that the other driver was driving an 18-wheeler over the speed limit and didn’t think about his momentum, I was responsible for the lives of me and my passengers and I had to think about that. To become a better, safer driver, you must educate yourself on your vehicle, on the precautionary measures to avoiding car crashes, on the rules of driving, and more. It isn’t enough to learn driver’s education when you’re a new driver, you absolutely must remember and apply what you learned to your driving. To be a good, safe driver isn’t the ability to get to your destination quicker, it’s to remind yourself that you are holding the lives of yourself and the other people on the road in your hands. Remember that the only thing keeping everyone on the road safe is the unsaid agreement that we’re not playing bumper cars.