Asphalt and a Broken Spine

Black ice is a well-known threat in the midwestern part of the US. Even the most experienced drivers have gotten into, or have almost gotten into an accident because of this death-trap. However, the issue of driving in winter is not the fact that there is ice on the ground – rather, it is the recklessness of drivers that causes the most accidents.

On December 31, 2021, my older brother was in a car accident that almost ended his life and his wife’s. It had been sleeting all day while they were driving to Omaha, Nebraska, where our dad lives. One side of the interstate was lined with cars in ditches, bad accidents, and people pulled off on shoulders to protect themselves from the icy mix falling from the sky. The other side of the interstate appeared to be perfectly dry, which made people reckless. I was driving the opposite direction of my brother, on the bad side of the road. All of the traffic was moving at roughly 5 mph, all of us cautious of the road we could barely see ahead of us. When I got the call that my older brother had been in a horrible car accident, I realized that he was directly across the highway from me. We had somehow met in the middle on the outskirts of a small town, and as I looked over to the otherside of the road, I saw his truck in the ditch, completely destroyed. It was by miracle that my brother and sister-in-law survived the crash; he had a broken spine, and several other broken bones. My sister-in-law didn’t even walk away from the crash, because she ended up with a broken neck amongst other things. This crash only happened because, as I later found out, my brother was driving nearly 65 mph on a “dry road” that wasn’t really dry. Despite the weather conditions, he was reckless and could have killed himself and his wife. If he had been better educated on not only the conditions, but also how to be careful in those kinds of situations, he never would have crashed his truck.

It is imperative that we as a nation reduce the deaths caused by car accidents, before they take another 30,000 lives in a year. According to the CDC in 2020, “Crash injuries are estimated to be the eighth leading cause of death globally for all age groups and the leading cause of death for children and young people 5–29 years of age. More people now die in crashes than from HIV/AIDS”. While not the highest cause of death in the United States, being in the top 10 is nothing to brag about in this case. But there’s a solution to the high number of traffic deaths; proper driver education. My aforementioned older brother who got into the car accident took Drivers Ed in roughly 2009 or 2010, which means that his knowledge is probably outdated. Laws and cars have changed in the 12 years that he has been driving, but based on his reckless driving before the accident – which is not the only instance of it – he is basing his driving skills based off the class he took over a decade ago. Thus, it should be required to retake the course every-so-often to make sure adults and other drivers are well-prepared for the changing conditions of the road. In some states, this is a required law for people over 50, because their eyesight and judgment could have worsened with age. Frankly, it should be a law everywhere that people retake a shorter version of the course, driving and written test included, at least every five years. If people are regularly reminded of current laws, how to use good judgment when driving, and when it’s best to get out from behind the wheel, the number of traffic deaths every year will steadily decline over time.

They say that driving is just like riding a bicycle; you never forget how to drive. But the thing is, a car is literally several thousand pounds heavier than a bicycle, and a lot more deadly. The day my brother got into a car accident, he got behind the wheel over confidently because “he’d been driving for 13 years, what could go wrong?” It is this exact thinking that many drivers on a regular basis believe when they get behind the wheel, and it’s reckless. Our skills become dull overtime when we don’t think about them, so being required to relearn those skills and think about them on a regular basis will force people to become more diligent when driving. It might help them see the deer in the ditch that’s about to jump out before it actually happens. Diligence could help a driver understand when to drive below the speed limit to prevent an accident. Observance can allow a driver to spot the car that’s about to pull out in front of them, and give them more time to respond to a potential threat. Honestly, I could do better at this myself. Oftentimes, I listen to music and zone out, making my reflexes slow. We as a nation need to be more mindful of the cars, people, and animals around us while we drive, and a good way to ensure this is to require all peoples to retake a Driver’s Ed course on a regular basis to sharpen those skills. If we do that, we will not have to worry nearly as much as we do now that our loved ones will be killed in a fatal car crash, whether caused by themselves or someone else.