Being a Super Driver

I believe that driver education can save substantial lives. We have all heard about someone who you just probably saw a few days earlier, who is now dead due to a car accident. Driver education should be required for all drivers, especially younger ones.

When I was 16, I was traveling with my boyfriend and his best friend. He was driving a Ford Ranger with a single cabin, so the glass was right behind our heads. We were driving to a student dance when we stopped at a red light. My boyfriend was driving, his best friend was on the passenger seat, and I was in the middle. It was a very busy intersection. All of a sudden while I was talking to my friend on my right side, I heard wheels squealing and I barely had time to look ahead and see a car’s bright lights coming towards us. I was able to claw my nails to the top of the cabin and hold on. The impact was strong. Our traffic light had turned green and the first car in front of us was able to pass through, but from the opposite direction who had a red light was a car that ran the red-light full speed and hit the other car that was coming towards our direction also with a green light which was the car that hit us head on. My boyfriend asked me if I was fine, and I thought I was. After a while I realized that my head had broken the rear-view mirror, my legs had taken off the cap of the standard transmission stick and my knees and lower legs broke the buttons of the radio and air conditioning unit. This happened in one second or so.

This story is to emphasize that things happen very quickly and that no matter how prepared kids feel to drive, the only thing that will make them better drivers is practice that comes with years or intensive driver education. Driver education should be hands on, and preferably in real life conditions. I know that now due to my 32 years of driving experience I have developed driver patterns in my brain and it has sharpened my reflexes where just by looking at the cars around me, I can already tell who is going to change lanes before they even do so. I guess practice is the only thing that can teach this.

Another thing that good drivers need to do is watch out for bad drivers who engage in irresponsible behavior like drinking and driving or being intoxicated and driving. This means that as a responsible driver, we should engage in defensive driving, this will give a good driver the opportunity to notice erratic or irresponsible driving behavior by other drivers with enough time to make a difference and prevent a bad accident. This also includes being a responsible friend and not letting your friends drive drunk or intoxicated. There have been many stories of drunk drivers who have killed innocent or permanently incapacitated by-standards and no matter how they wish they could take it all back and do it all differently, the consequences of their actions are permanent and cannot be reversed.

Other situations that good drivers need to engage in is always put on your seatbelt and always carry scissors or a knife in the car. The seatbelt will safe the life of a driver in a car accident and in the case that the accident is bad enough that the seatbelt gets stuck, it is always necessary to have something sharp that can cut the seatbelt if necessary. These seem like logical steps to take after an accident has already taken place, but the key is to do it before an accident takes place. I always tell my children that an accident coming will not give you time to stop and put on your seatbelt before it happens. You always have to be ready for it. The key is to focus on prevention and not reaction.

Driver education should include and be focused mostly on defensive driving, which is the status a driver is in without any distraction, watching all the vehicles, obstacles, and conditions around them. It means to be prepared for anything that might take place on the road, like having a pair of scissors, emergency lights, and an emergency radio in case no phone signal is available. Defensive driving also forces drivers to make sure they are not distracted by anything including the radio or the phone. If we all did our part, there would be thousands of lives saved every year on American roads.