Behind The Wheel: How a Quick Trip Can Turn Into Disaster

At the young age of 6, my parents got me and my brother strapped in the car to go run errands. I thought nothing of it as I was only 6, but now at age 18, I can still remember this day and all of the moments that led up to this disaster. My brother and I despised running errands, so we weren’t too thrilled to be dragged along on this excursion. We went to the tile store, of all places, so we complained endlessly, until my parents told us that we could get ice cream afterwards. After that we were happy to be out, there was only one thing on our mind, and it was the ice cream. After what seemed like forever, we were finally done at the tile store and we were making our way to A&W. We made it all the way to the turn into the parking lot, and as my dad began to step on the gas, everything became slow motion. We had been hit. The car slowly flipped on its side as my brother and I screamed “Mom! Mom! What’s going on?” as a four and six year old would. It felt like it went on forever, when in reality it likely was only in the span of about 20 seconds. I recall seeing my brother on the side of the tipped car that was on the ground, broken glass shattered next to him. I was hanging on the other side, my seatbelt keeping me up. I don’t remember how we got out of the car, but I do remember how lucky the firefighters told us we were, because by some kind of miracle, none of us were hurt, not even a scratch. The firefighters were kind, they knew how scared we were so they gave us a big bag of stuffed animals to let us pick one out. We didn’t end up getting ice cream that day, instead we went to a chinese restaurant directly next to us, and waited for our uncle to come pick us up.

Looking back, I recall how easily and quickly things like that can happen, and I kept this in mind through my drivers ed course, and everyday when I get behind the wheel. Not longer than a few months ago, I found myself driving down the same road that that accident occurred on, 12 years later. I made a comment about it to my dad, and he explained to me how the accident happened, “One lane had stopped to let us through, but the other lane was empty. This guy came barrelling down the road and hit us, make sure that you don’t turn on an unprotected green unless it is clear or all of the lanes have stopped for you.”, he said. I tried to recall the hours I spent in driving school, trying to remember if I had received this same advice. I decided that I had not. However this didn’t phase me, as I felt that most of my driving knowledge had come from my parents, not from my classes. I believe that this is a major problem in our world today. Young teens learn most of their driving skills from their parents, who likely took very different coursework in their drivers ed classes, and not to mention, most likely took those classes over 20 years prior. So how does this problem get resolved, and what would it do to reduce the number of accidents that often cause death and/or injury?

I believe that it is crucial to provide up to date education for parents with a teen that is learning to drive for the first time. Everyone has their own driving style, but it should be uniform across the board. Additionally, there needs to be great emphasis on driving responsibly. My drivers ed class only touched on driving under the influence, and where in a perfect world, nobody would drive under the influence, but it is bound to happen. Kids in drivers ed need to be educated on what to do not only on themselves preventing drunk driving, but rather what to do if they see a driver on the road that appears to be under the influence, rather than them figuring it out themselves. Driver’s education desperately needs to be updated to reflect our current state in society. As technology grows and cars have blind spot monitors, backup cameras, etc. young drivers must be educated on how to continue to monitor their surroundings regardless of how technologically savvy their car may be. The time I spent in drivers ed seemed to be videos created upwards of 30 years ago, and did not keep my or anyones attention, which could be detrimental to the future drivers in our world.

To conclude, in order to prevent deaths on the road and increase the safety of drivers across America, it is crucial that more emphasis be placed on the importance of drivers education, not only for new drivers, but for parents of new drivers as well. As a person ages and begins to forget all of the lessons learned in drivers ed, society must be diligent in making sure that older drivers remember the importance of road safety. We do not live in a perfect world, so it would be near impossible to prevent all driving deaths, but we as a society can do these tasks in order to help reduce the number of deaths each year.