Drivers ed: The Difference Between Life and Death

Drivers
Education: The Difference Between Life and Death

Educating drivers,
especially inexperienced ones, is an essential part in teaching the
next generation how to drive defensively. Informing drivers of
concepts, such as using peripheral vision, is important for them to
know because if they were unaware of this, they could fail to see an
object, such as a deer, on the shoulder coming towards their vehicle.
There are important details that inexperienced motorists overlook,
which is why they need to be educated. Another step that can reduce
the number of deaths related to driving is to have people with their
lives impacted by driving accidents tell their story. Most teenagers
have the mentality that it won’t be them getting into a car
accident, but the chances of a teenager being involved in a car
accident during the first years of driving are high. I had the
mentality that I could never get into a car accident because I
thought I was ready for the real world when I wasn’t. Exposing new
drivers to the dangers and the possible outcomes from driving
recklessly could reduce the number of accidents and deaths related to
driving.

When
I turned 15 years old my grandma gave me an old car for my birthday.
I would always play music in it and take care of it because it was
the first “adult” item I had ever had. I took care of this car
and I loved it so much that as soon as I turned sixteen, I got my
license and began driving it. I felt like a real adult driving this
nice car (it was a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am) and everything seemed to be
going my way, until that fateful night. A month after having my
license, I was texting and driving on my way home from work and I ran
off the road and slid until I T-boned a railroad tie. My parents are
both firefighters and my father is a police officer, so I have heard
plenty of stories throughout my life, especially once I got my
drivers license. I heard the gruesome details of my parents pulling
out teenagers from cars or breaking news to parents about how their
child did not survive, so needless to say both my parents and I were
disappointed in my actions. So how can I be a better driver and help
others? Sharing my story of my car accident, which could have easily
been fatal, could open up the eyes of others to put the phone down. I
was texting a boy that was playing with my feelings. The officer that
arrived on the scene said “A boy is not worth your life” and
those words have resonated with me since then. A text is not worth
your life; it most certainly was not worth mine. This experience
opened my eyes to how dangerous distractions are and how much my life
is worth. Almost 2,000 teens died in 2017 from car accidents, and I
could have been one of them.