With Great Driving Comes Great Responsibility

With
Great Driving Comes Great Responsibility

I
can remember the accident like it was yesterday. The tires skidding,
the glass flying through the air… the flesh against the asphalt. It
was a long-haul road trip to our annual family reunion, and no one
wanted to pay the flight cost of hauling 113 family members from
Arizona to Mississippi. So, time for a good old Road trip! My
cousin, younger sister and I drove with my mom, an experienced driver
who had taken on long hauls many times before. My aunt, much younger,
was tasked with driving the family mini- van; she carried my older
sister, and 5 of my other cousins. The trip sounded like so much fun
and we had prepared our cars accordingly, or so we thought.

Hours
into the trip I remember glancing up to see us passing the New Mexico
border, and then drifting back to play my Nintendo ds. What seems
like moments pass and then my mother screams and I look up and see
my aunt’s minivan in front of us flipping and tumbling. The scene
was hard to handle. The cousins scattered around the highway, my aunt
trying to locate her children…my older sister pinned in the
backseat…a pole dug into her back. I was ordered by my mother to
keep all of my cousins who had been in the accident awake. I held my
6-year-old cousin in my arms trying to prevent the right side of her
face that had the skin scrapped off from touching the seat of our
car. The paramedics seemed to take years to make it to us, as we were
far from a town. My aunt swore that she had only been a little
sleepy. Before she knew it a tire had blown, and the car was
flipping.

Luckily,
after some surgeries and medical care, my family all survived the
crash. But the trauma of the event remained and made me realize the
importance of responsible driving. Therefore, drivers ed is
important. In drivers ed they teach to never drive while
tired and how to avoid losing focus of the road. Tips such as pulling
over at rest stops and shifting your eyes periodically are life
savers.

Falling
asleep while driving is a huge issue that drivers ed combats.
We can educate more people on the precautions they should take
against becoming tired behind the wheel. One of the first steps we
can take is educating drivers on how to avoid losing focus, drivers
should shift their eyes every few seconds to avoid becoming dazed. In
addition to this, we can educate drivers on how to plan out where
rest stops will be located throughout long trips. And lastly,
highlight that it is okay to admit that you may tired, and know when
to take a break and ask someone else to drive!

The
number of driving related deaths can be reduced if we educate drivers
on how to be aware of ways to protect themselves and others while
driving. Making sure drivers avoid drinking and driving, texting, and
driving and other distracting elements. In all drivers will become
safer, the more that they are educated on the dangers and take
responsibility for the lives on the road.