Valuing Life and Safety Behind the Wheel

My brother was 17, he’d had his license for a little over a year and was the safest driver I knew. Because he went through driver’s education, he was constantly thoughtful and aware on the road, teaching me important safety lessons in passing, like how to look over your shoulder for bikers or check intersections for other drivers no matter the situation. As he drove our family’s little silver car to school one morning, he proceeded through an intersection when the light turned green and forgot to do the one thing he told me about so many times: look both ways. In the second it took him to put his foot on the gas pedal the car was hit by a driver speeding through a red light on the way to work. Luckily, both parties were uninjured, but the car was totalled and many important lessons learned.

When I later learned of the crash, it struck me how something so loud and explosive as a car accident could go so unnoticed by passersby. How could an accident that had the potential to end the lives of two whole and loved humans be forgotten as soon as the cars were taken from the road? That day I gained an awareness of the normalization of car crashes in our society. Even growing up, I heard adults say, “you’re bound to get in a crash someday!” But I believe that crashes don’t have to be inevitable, and the answer to making car related injuries and accidents less of a commonplace is to put more new drivers into drivers education courses.

My brother’s experience pushed me to take drivers ed. There, I learned what skill my brother lacked during the moment of his crash: defensive driving. I had never heard the term before and probably never would have if not for drivers education. Drivers education taught me that reducing deaths and injuries on the road begins with your own actions. You cannot control what other drivers do, what lights they run, but you can be prepared to react to the errors of others through defensive driving: by slowing down in busy areas, removing distractions such as phones or loud music to increase awareness of your surroundings, and to keep a safe following distance of 3-4 seconds. Drivers education taught me that to become a safer driver I need to scan the road for danger and be prepared to react. It taught me that having conversations about safe driving with my peers will not only help secure my own knowledge about safety on the roads, but allow me to pass on strategies I have learned to others who may not have attended drivers ed. Most importantly, drivers ed taught me the skill of learning about driving. The process of receiving feedback about my actions on the road from experienced instructors left me receptive to the words of others who comment on my driving. Having a “backseat driver” around isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, one way that I can become a better driver and others can do is to take in the feedback from those around us, and understand that driving advice is a necessary part of learning safety skills on the road.

Drivers education took me beyond reading street signs and using common sense on the road, it instilled in me the importance of strategy and control while driving and that is why drivers education is so important. During my practice drives through drivers education, some of the most memorable moments were when my instructor pointed out the presence of other life near the street, a man on a morning walk, a dog running in the park, or a squirrel darting between trees. I believe that this connection between technical driving skills and respect for those inside and outside of the car is a lesson only drivers ed can offer, and a large reason for why drivers education is so important in lowering the number of deaths as a result of driving. According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, teens that don’t participate in drivers education programs are responsible for 91 percent of accidents. I believe that these accidents and car crash related deaths all around the U.S. can be reduced by higher attendance of drivers education classes. If all young adults can be prepared through education to pull onto a road with the goals of safety and defensiveness in mind, then driving can become a much safer experience for us all.