Behind My Wheel.

Hi, I’m 17, and due to being in a few bad crashes as a kid, I’m terrified of driving.

My father is an epileptic, and because of this, he’s not allowed to drive. He’s not even allowed to back a car out of a driveway, but that never stopped him. He’s driven, and I think still does sometimes to this day. He’s driven drunk, high, while having a seizure, and even as a passenger refuses to wear a seatbelt. After watching his seize out and crash into a Piggly Wiggly bank right in front of me, It scared me into driving straight.

To this day I stayed focused during every driver’s education class, aced every quiz, and panic behind the wheel. That’s right. I don’t drive safely easily after witnessing things during my childhood. To me I was always shown “I’m not too drunk to drive, I’ve only had a few beers,” or “Dad can drive, just buckle up and don’t get us pulled over.” It’s illogical to think that I, a nonepileptic, could seize out on the road, or even be drunk myself without consuming any alcohol.

That’s not the only reason I fear driving though. I know that I’m not the only person on the road at any given moment. There’s at least one person in my school that has a car and drives without taking a single driver’s education class and has indeed crashed. There are several kids in my school that I know drive high, or drive home tipsy after parties. I know there are kids in my school who drive angry and speed and yell just because they’re angry, or even kids driving sad. I know several kids not just in my school that drive while texting or answering calls on the road, and that’s just in my school alone.

I believe that to be safer we need to focus on enforcing and teaching our kids to drive right. Sure you can’t enforce anything when you aren’t in the car, but the first way they learn is by example. Drive safely, seatbelt on, do the speed limit, stay off your phone while driving, don’t drive while feeling intense emotions, and always always always pay full attention to the road.

I feel like drivers education is super important for road safety. Not only is it needed to get your license, but it also teaches you how to properly judge your surroundings in a car, how your car works, and how to drive defensively. These things are important because to be safe on a road you need to be informed on how the roads work, and how to safely determine when you’re in the right.

Some steps I think everyone can take to reduce the number of accidents on roads would be just to drive safely. Don’t speed, watch your blind spots, stop checking your phone or changing the music and focus on the road, and always always ALWAYS make sure that you’re not under the influence when you get behind the wheel.

I always hate to bring statistics into essays, but I feel this is important to add. From January to September of 2022 there were 31,720 deaths caused by motor vehicles in the United States. According to the CDC, in the United States alone, 8 people die a day from distracted driving. That includes phone usage, eating, talking to passengers, and more.

Some steps I believe can be taken to be safer when driving would be to put your phone on do not disturb before driving, so that your phone cannot be a distractor on the road. Another way to avoid distractions is to eat before you leave! Taking your hands off the wheel can be dangerous, even if just for a few seconds. Take breaks when driving for long periods of time, and always call someone else to pick you up if you’re under the influence of anything.

Another thing that I believe is that teenagers should wait longer than a year before having more than one passenger in the car. Obviously, not all people wait, but per the law, newly licensed drivers under 18 can only have one passenger in the car that isn’t blood-related to them. The CDC lists 8 reasons that teens are more likely to crash, those reasons being inexperience, driving with other teen passengers, nighttime driving, not using a seatbelt, distracted driving, drowsy driving, reckless driving, and impaired driving. Some of the most at-risk people are listed as males, teens driving with other teen or young adult passengers, and newly licensed teens. The reason I believe this is because while I will admit this isn’t safe, I’ve ridden in my friends’ cars, and I can say that we don’t always make the safest choices. Spotting dogs on the side of the road, or even pretty boys. Turning the music up over 20, and jamming out, including the driver. Playing games like punch buggy, and including the driver, who has to turn to punch the friends in the back seat. None of it is safe, and all of it is simply because we’re all teens together in a car. Sure adults and other people can do all the same things, but we’re more likely to.

It’s distracting to even have adults in the car, especially when my grandpa freaks out over little things when I drive sometimes, however, I’m glad to say that I’m a fairly safe driver… Well… As safe as I can be. For now.