Driving – The Freedom and The Implications

Sixteen; a magical age. It’s the age that you can get your driver’s license. It’s a rite of passage and a part of growing up. I counted down the days until my sixteenth birthday. I couldn’t wait to drive. Driving is freedom. It means I can buy McDonalds fries whenever I want and listen to too many Taylor Swift CDs. But for every good thing about driving, there’s a downside. News headlines are filled with drunk driving incidents and deaths. The unfortunate reality is that we all know someone who has lost their life at the hands of a car accident.

I knew two twin girls. They were out of town at a volleyball tournament when a drunk middle aged woman hit them with her car. They both died and their parents are left childless.

I knew a group of teenage boys who decided to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night. They were on the interstate on the way to Chicago. The driver wasn’t supposed to be driving other people. They got into a crash and one of them didn’t survive.

A former swim coach at the high school got in a wreck. He was rushed to a hospital but didn’t live through the night. The road was closed when I was driving and I saw the aftermath.

Just a few days ago, my school day started with a tragic announcement. One of the teachers at the middle school had died the night before in a car accident. She was young and was in only her second year of teaching.

The list goes on and on. Those are just a few of the fatal accidents I know personally. Other minor ones are all around me. My friend got hit by a car on her way home. The other car ran through a stop sign and rammed into her. She is okay but she’s mentally shaken and now doesn’t have a car. I long for a world where the roads are safer. Driving is a privilege and as a driver, you hold a responsibility to keep you and everyone around you safe. In a perfect world, I wouldn’t know 5 people who are no longer with us because someone made a mistake driving. Mistakes when you are controlling a vehicle can be fatal. Driver’s education is an important step in getting a license. It prepares the driver to be safe and responsible on the road. I learned important skills through my driver’s ed classes. Driver’s education is built to equip one to drive. It is the foundation of driver safety. Driver’s education is greatly important in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving.

There is knowledge gained in drivers education and then there is the application of that knowledge. These are two very different things. I know the speed limit. I know to stop at a stop sign. However, I am guilty of bending the rules. In fact every driver I know has at one point sped or not stopped completely at a stop sign. Even though we know the facts, we have to make the choice to apply them. The mindset that people have needs to be altered. It is not enough to understand the concept of speed limits and stop signs. We have to make the conscious choice to follow those rules. People, especially teenagers, have a relaxed and adventurous mindset when it comes to driving. It’s fun to go fast. It’s exhilarating. However, it is also dangerous and has consequences. I live in a town with a lot of country roads. Country roads are unique in the fact that people don’t think speed limits apply to them. My brother once hit 100 mph on a country road for no other reason than that it was “fun”. What if there was another car coming? What if a sharp turn came up? What if a deer jumped into the road? People don’t tend to consider these what ifs when going reckless speeds. My friend was in a car with another girl. It was night and they were speeding down a back road. A deer jumped out and because of their speed, they couldn’t stop. The car flipped over and the deer’s head went through the windshield. What was an innocent stunt quickly turned treacherous. The police officer who arrived at the scene told them they were lucky to be alive.

Another huge problem in our society today is texting and driving. Indiana recently cracked down on their laws regarding texting and driving. However, people do it all the time. I have set the precedent that I am not on my phone while driving. People know not to call me and respect that it may take a minute for me to respond. I never respond to a text until I’m at my location. My driver’s ed courses ingrained in me the importance of putting away my cellphone while in the car. No text is more important than a human life. There are loads of campaigns that preach, “don’t text and drive”. It is integral to get the message across. Every driver can tell you it’s dangerous to text and drive. So why is it so common? My brother, for example, puts his phone in his lap. Not only is he distracted, he is forced to look down. I know multiple friends who respond to texts while they’re driving. A simple step we can all take is not texting or calling someone when they’re on the road. For example, when I’m hanging out with my friends and we’re waiting on one person to get there, we try not to text them because we know they’re in their car and on their way. Another safe step is using a phone holder. Anyone can buy a simple phone holder on amazon. When you have a stand for your phone, even if you have to answer a call, both your hands can be on the wheel. I’ve encouraged people to purchase stands. I also have other people send texts for me. While I’m driving, I’ve had my sister in the passenger seat send a text for me. The message still gets sent, but I don’t put myself in danger of being distracted and crashing.

A big step that can be taken to reduce the deaths in driving accidents is wearing seat belts. My parents, like any parent should, have made me have my seatbelt on no matter what. Even though seat belts are a law, so many people break it. When I got my own car, I cracked down on this. I refuse to move my car until everyone is buckled. It takes no time at all and we are all capable of buckling a seat belt. My sister doesn’t agree with me and she gets mad when I get onto her. But after enough times, she respects my rule. Buckling a seatbelt won’t prevent a crash but it can prevent the damage.

The last thing I want to discuss is driving under the influence – whether that be drugs or alcohol.I am truly shocked at the amount of people who put themself in harm’s way by being drunk or high behind the wheel. It is no secret that people do drugs but I could not believe that peers of mine have driven high out of their minds. Not only are they harming their minds, they’re also putting everyone else around them at risk. I have pleaded with them to never drive high. While I may not be able to sway them, at least I got my point across. I have seen great examples of drunk driving prevention. I was recently at a college party and they had posted a list of people who were designated sober drivers and their numbers. Doing illegal substances is one thing but driving on top of that is worse. I was happy to see that this college party made an effort to be safe. I can encourage this safety by being a sober driver when I’m in college. All it takes is someone to step in and drive a drunk person to prevent a deadly accident.

Driving is complex. There is a process and rules to getting a driver’s license for good reason. I have seen the effects accidents can have. For every person killed, there is a community of people who have to deal with that grief. I can reduce the number of deaths on the road by being an attentive and safe driver. I can follow the rules of the road and pay close attention to my surroundings. I can prevent myself and others from falling victim to bad habits, like sending texts while driving.I can encourage those around me to be safe. I hope I can have an impact and make this world a safer place.