Be The Example

Think about it, It was December 25th, 2020, and the snow was falling silently and gently on the window shields. The happy married couple was on their way to celebrate Christmas with their family. Shannon was the passenger and Mike was the driver. They were attempting to arrive there by 5:00 pm, and the radio’s clock indicated 4:38 pm. Mike’s phone begins to ring, and then he receives a few text message notifications. For ten seconds, he looked away from the road to pick up his phone. It only took a few seconds. He suddenly hears the horn of a pick-up truck. The world turns dark. Mike wakes up. His face slammed into the window, with a metallic aftertaste in his mouth. He sees a paramedic’s mouth moving and assumes that he’s shouting his name above the sound of the sirens as his ears start to ring so loudly that he is unable to hear anything else. The only thing he can recall is a five-ton pickup truck slamming into the passenger side, where his beloved wife was seated. He keeps repeating to himself, “I didn’t have any time to react”. He trembles as he looks over and discovers his wife dead after finally gaining the confidence to check on her. But this scenario I’ve just made up, could actually have been someone’s reality. The world’s most depressing yearbook would be created if we gathered every photo ever taken of a car accident. It would feature the faces of seniors with unfulfilled college plans, juniors who never made it to their last year, freshmen who were never kissed and had never dealt with fickle young love, and the loss of a loved one, a former partner, or the person who helped create you.

Young teens who will soon become adults are expected to undergo a driver education course in order to avoid this from happening. The majority of teenagers in my generation believe this to be pointless and unimportant, but it actually develops us and imparts crucial life skills and values. Driving on the road, and how serious we take learning the rules of the road to save a life, to be safe, and to ensure that a mother, parent, or sibling can make it home to their family, I believe, is the first sense of responsibility and accountability we get as young teens transitioning into adult life. This teaches us the responsibility of being safe on the road, not only for ourselves but for other people. If everyone took drivers education seriously and applied the rules they were taught to the real world of driving, there would be fewer fatalities. In 2021, there were 42,915 traffic-related fatalities. No one would have had to leave the earth early without saying goodbye if people had followed the rules they learned in the course. This could have saved so many lives. Driving accidents occur for a variety of reasons, including distracted driving, running red lights, exceeding the speed limit, and other behaviors that are taught to be avoided in the course, but people often fail to consider the seriousness of the consequences this causes, and believe they will never experience it. This is why a good driver’s education program, and young teens applying this in real life, is crucial.

I am aware that everyone says, “Oh, if we add more rules, then things will get better,” or “If we alter the speed limit, then that’ll definitely make a difference,” but in my opinion, it still comes down to us as individuals, regardless of how many rules we add or change. Integrity is all that matters. Are we going to act ethically while no one is looking? Will we act in a morally upright manner? Will we act responsibly to save not just our own life but also someone else’s? Will we have selflessness?

One of the things I would advise is to test integrity in various settings while driving. I’ve read of a Michigan company named Integrity Driving Test that is already using this. In order to establish and guarantee that the driver being tested will be completely prepared to face the demands of driving once they get their license, they work to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the driver being tested. Another suggestion would be for parents to make sure that their young teens understand these rules before they enter the road. However, teens learn best by example, so setting an example for them is essential. My final recommendation is to emphasize the repercussions of car accidents. It’s true that some people don’t care, but if we go one step farther with the consequences, ultimately people will start to care. Because I firmly believe that those who died in auto accidents and whose loved ones mourned their loss. Deserve to know that the person who caused it due to recklessness learns their lesson and won’t do it again, thus perhaps if we extended jail time for longer than one year, two or maybe three changes will occur.

Personally, I’ve never been in a car accident. But when my mother was driving in the middle of the night on the highway, she struck a dog that was darting across the highway. She walked away unscathed, her car was the only thing that was damaged, but you would think that a person, especially an adult, would be extremely cautious while driving on a highway given the high accident rate on roads and the time of night. My mother, however, is not someone who sets a good example for driving safely. She updates her Facebook status or takes a selfie on her phone every time she drives me somewhere. No matter how many times I caution her, whether I’m with her or not, to drive safely and pay attention to the road. She simply won’t put her phone down. And that makes me wonder if she isn’t even concerned for her own and her daughter’s safety when driving. And even preventing herself of getting in another accident. What will then cause her to stop? She emphasizes the necessity for me to drive safely, yet she isn’t even able to lead by example. This leads me to feel anxious every time she steps outside the house. Whenever she’s driving and I am at home caring for my siblings, I worry that one day she won’t return, or that she would suffer a serious injury.

When I get behind the wheel, I want to drive safely for not just myself, but also the thousands of other people who will be sharing the road with me. because it now involves other people in addition to just me. As my buddies take up the obligations of driving as well, I want to enforce them to follow the rules whenever I’m in the car with them. Simply because it could save their life, and someone else’s. I want to drive on the road honorably, always acting morally, and maybe someday, if I have kids, they’ll write an essay about me, setting a good example for driving safety.

We could save countless lives from passing away or ending up in a hospital bed if we held ourselves to better standards and applied the regulations we learn on the road. We all claim we’ll do it, but falter when the time comes. Do you have what it takes? That is the question.