The Price of Life

One of the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic was a change in the new driver’s licensing process in the state of Wisconsin. Due to fears of spreading COVID-19 in a confined car setting, the state of Wisconsin began to allow parents to sign off on their child being granted their driver’s license without taking a behind-the-wheel test. As a driver who received my license prior to this change, I believe it is a very unsafe choice. The driver’s education, temporary license, and behind-the-wheel testing processes all play a very important role in the preparedness and safety of drivers on the road. I feel that the state of Wisconsin took away one of the safety nets that helped to ensure drivers who were not ready yet did not receive their license. While I felt the behind-the-wheel test was very stressful and not fun at all, I do feel that it did a very good job of judging my ability to drive safely under pressure.

Given the timing of my driver’s education classes, I studied for my temporary license test on my own. After passing my temporary license test, I later re-visited all of the material in a classroom setting a few months later. I believe that the knowledge I gained in the classroom setting through the active discussions was critical for me. My instructor and classmates were able to share real-life stories that you will not find in a textbook. Those real-life stories were far more valuable to me than any content in a textbook.

No matter how much one studies or how well they do on a test, the greatest obstacle that I believe we face in relation to driving-related deaths is distraction. Whether that distraction be from looking at the radio, being on your phone, eating, looking at your passengers, or being under the influence, we all face distractions. How we choose to react to those distractions is our choice. I believe that, as a society, significant efforts have been made to create awareness of the risks of distracted driving. Laws have been enforced in many states to reduce texting or hand-held phone use while driving. However, perhaps that isn’t enough. Perhaps we need a technological advancement that non-voluntarily disables a driver’s phone while driving. Yes, it would be an inconvenience. However, I believe that our safety and livelihood is worth that small inconvenience that it presents.

Thankfully, most of my friends and family are very safe and mindful drivers. Personally, I make a conscious choice to not ride in a vehicle driven by any friends who I do not feel practice safe driving. I often volunteer to drive because I trust the safety of my driving over others. However, I am not immune to the impacts of distracted driving. Within the past month, a fatal accident took the life of the driver who ran a stop sign. A passenger of his remains in the ICU with many surgeries and challenges ahead of him. The second passenger is thankfully recovering at home. All three were graduates from our small school last year. The impacts of this incident to our small community and school were devastating just a week prior to Christmas.

As a driver myself, I do my best to practice safe driving habits. As challenging as it can be, I try to avoid the use of my phone while driving. When I do drive a group of my friends, I ask the most responsible person with me to ride in the passenger seat so they can help me to identify any risks I might miss. In addition, when I am a passenger with one of my friends, I do my best to not be a distraction myself. I realize how easy it is to get caught up in having fun with my friends. However, sometimes that fun can be too tempting for the driver. No amount of fun is worth risking our safety and lives.

As annoying as it may be to me at times, I also feel that my parents having a driving tracking application on my phone makes me a more conscious driver. It makes me pay closer attention to my speed because I know if I go too fast, my parents will get a notification and will be having a chat with me about it when I get home!

I believe that if we all just use a little bit of more common sense, set our phones aside, and focus on the task at hand, it would go a long way. We owe that to ourselves, to our friends and families, and to the others on the road. No amount of being late, missing a text, or having fun is worth the price of a life.