My Pledge to Protect

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1,830 drivers between age 15 and 20 died in a motor vehicle accident in the year of 2017. These are 1,830 young lives taken by the hands of an avoidable situation. 1,830 individuals unable to experience some of life’s greatest moments: a wedding, a child being born, an advancement in their career path. My heart breaks for their parents, and for their future families who never came to be. It breaks for how preventable such a death could have been, if only all of the drivers on the road were following rudimentary safety precautions. Most picture the driver as the reckless and bold, and the pedestrian as the cautious and trepidatious. Yet, we are all drivers and pedestrians at some point in our precious lifetime. Why don’t we value the same safety guides when we have the power behind the wheel? Must the driver always presume he/she has the right of way?

Drivers ed affected the driver I came to be, as I learned the ins and outs of the rules of the road, and practiced my three point turn extensively. During the in class instruction, I was met with stories upon stories of drivers who regretted a drunk driving incident that killed an innocent pedestrian. I was faced with families begging a class of teenagers to stay off of their cellular phone, as that was the culprit for their child’s death. These testimonies are the exact reason why drivers ed holds a place of significance in my heart, and is forever stamped in my mind. They are the grounds for my belief that drivers ed should be mandatory across all 50 states. In my place of residence, I see high school students going at a speed of 40 mph in a school zone, or their texting giving rise to a fender bender. One incident that struck a chord with me in particular, was a teenager with Netflix playing on her phone while her eyes should have been glued to the road.

While I could explain multitudes of stories about reckless driving, what is most important is the solution to end the onslaught of car accidents. I believe each student should be taught in drivers ed; not only of how to drive, but of the destructive driving behaviors that plague our generation and their consequences. Personally, I will take steps to better my own driving, as I have made a plethora of regretful mistakes. In addition, I will speak up. I pledge to have an open-ended discussion with my friends about the importance of safe driving, and to only be a passenger to safe drivers. Everyone thinks a quick text will do no harm, but that is where they are wrong, and where I will hold myself accountable to correct them. These are the steps I will take, and encourage others to take as well, because every life should give rise to a future.