In Your First Year…

I remember sitting in driver’s ed at 7:00 am before school started, struggling to stay awake. Our teacher droned on and in the back of my head I heard him say, “Most students end up in a car crash their first year of driving. I’d say about 90%.” Now, I don’t know if that’s truly factual or not but I do know that I rolled my eyes and thought to myself, “Yeah, right.”

Our Driver’s ed teacher did teach us a lot of things and greatly prepared us to be on the road. The year I took driver’s ed I was only 15 and was getting my learner’s permit. I spent a year driving with an adult in the car and learning how to do things safely. Keeping three seconds between me and the car in front of me, never going more than two miles over the speed limit, and all of that good stuff. Then, I turned sixteen and I could finally drive on my own. Needless, to say I was fairly confident in my driving abilities. After all, I had great teachers and experience on my side.

It was a gray November day and I was driving my sister and myself to school two months after I had received my license. There’s a road in Lincoln, NE that goes from two lanes down to one lane as you go up a hill and there is not a whole lot of room to get over. However, traffic backs up like crazy because one line becomes way longer than the other due to people not wanting to get stuck waiting to get over. Because of this there are a large amount of people who love to test limits and try to beat everyone and cut in front of the line. I had also conveniently disregarded the fact that my brakes would not stop me as fast as a normal car (I drove an F-150). Cue disaster. The red light turns green and the guy in the lane next to us guns it to get in front. Unfortunately, for him the person two cars in front of us did not want him to get in front and gunned it as well. The fast and furious would-be attempts to cut across into the lane and promptly side T-bones the first car and both cars go spinning to a stop. The car directly in front of us slams on their brakes as do I. Momentum was not on my side however as we rammed into the back of the car and were 45 minutes late to school. Immediately in the back of my head the words “most students end up in a car crash their first year of driving” rang through my head. Yeah, I felt kind of stupid. Thankfully, there were no injuries in the crash just some hurt words and savings.

There was a key lesson for me to learn as a young driver: you are taught things in driver’s ed for a reason – you are not invincible. It also taught me ways to be a better and safer driver on the road. I definitely leave more distance between me and the car in front of me and watch other people in order to anticipate what could be coming. In other words, I began following the defensive driving advice I had been taught about. I think as we become safer, more defensive, drivers ourselves it inherently helps other people on the roads as well. If one person is able to sense things and drive safer than this will inherently cause the people around them to be little safer from danger as well. Another way to help others become safer is to have everyone go through driver’s ed. I know my story may make it look like driver’s ed does not prevent accidents but in reality it did make a big difference in how I drove.

If I had not learned the safe, defensive driving techniques in driver’s ed I would not have known how to better correct my driving habits. The three second rule would not have been in place for me to fall back on once I realized the mistake I had made. I also think that driver education can help reduce deaths because it informs people about so much more than just defensive driving. It teaches people how to drive in harsh weather conditions where many fatal accidents happen. It teaches people how to check for potential hazards in their vehicles that could end up costing them money or their lives. All of these things that are learned in driver’s ed make it something that I think should be taught to everyone because it will help keep people safer on the roads.