Rinata White: Steps to a Journey

Rinata White: Steps to a Journey

During my drivers ed, I learned a great deal about staying safe. I believe that drivers ed is pivotal for lowering deaths while distracted driving. Steps for me to be a better driver would be learning about the consequences of drunk driving, car maintenance, and requiring drivers to retake driving and written tests every 20 years.

A yellow line was on the ground, the cop roared “step right up”. Nervously, I went up. She handed me glasses that looked really thick and stated “walk the line.” With the glasses on, I nauseatingly walked the line. After getting to the end, I confidently whipped off the glasses to see how well I did. Unfortunately, not very well. I wasn’t on the line at all. Where was I? At a bookbag giveaway booth about 9 feet from the yellow line. Drinking alcohol raises the risk of a car accident. Drunk glasses could save lives if used in drivers ed courses to highlight the dangers of drunk driving.

I remember on a rainy day I applied my brakes, but I wasn’t stopping. My heart was in my throat as a slid past the stop sign. I didn’t know then that I needed new tires, but after that incident I did realize how important car maintenance is. My experience made me wonder how many other people need car maintenance information. I believe that ASE Certificated car mechanic should have a day to teach the basics to any vehicle owner. A way to measure competency would be to have a quiz and hands on demonstration to pass.

When I moved back to my hometown of Indianapolis, I had to take a driver’s license test. I was a little uncertain about what it entailed, so I got the driver’s license study book. Page by page, old knowledge came easily but new knowledge was challenging to process. I am proud to say that I passed the test with flying colors. Yet, I also think that drivers should have to retake the driving test every 20 years to refresh their knowledge of driving laws. New laws can come on the books and being up to date is beneficial for all drivers.

One summer night I was coming home from an event. While driving down the rainy streets of our artsy Broad Ripple area, I quickly had to make a choice. Hit the car that just turned onto my street or the parked red truck. Thinking quickly, I choose the parked vehicle, because it didn’t have anyone in it. I thankfully was able to walk away from that scene with no injuries. After that accident I was nervous about driving in rainy conditions, and still am to this day. That scary experience is why drivers ed has been important to me. I believe there are ways to reduce crashes and injuries among young drivers by using drunk glasses as an instructional tool, car maintenance knowledge, and retaking driver’s tests every 20 years.