A Texas-Sized Mistake

I recognize that I am probably the exception among my peers in this opinion: driver’s education should be taken extremely seriously and changes should be made to its implementation. I’ve always felt it is important to learn the rules of the road and diligently practice to become a cautious, safe driver. However, there’s nothing like having another driver slam into your driver’s side door at moderate speed to really convince you of that.

Let’s back up a bit before I share that story. When I was 15, I began a parent-taught driver’s education course with an online component. In my community of suburban Dallas, Texas, this is the most popular option. Very few of my peers actually take in-person driver’s education. While my parents felt an in-person driver’s ed course with a professional and certified teacher would be the better option, they allowed me to do the parent-taught course because we have an ace up our sleeve. My grandfather retired several years ago and decided to start a secondary career as a certified driver’s ed instructor. Although he lives in Indiana—about 900 miles away from me—we knew that we could utilize his expertise to our benefit.

Throughout the year that I held my learner’s permit, we visited my grandparents a few times and my grandpa took me out for instructional drives. He also gave my parents written information on the skills he teaches his students during each individual drive. He also created written instructions on how to parallel park flawlessly each attempt. Thanks to my grandpa, my parents could use these aids throughout the months of our driving lessons together and feel confident I was getting a thorough driver’s education. I learned the textbook information through the online course, and I spent my in-car driving hours with well-qualified instructors to complete my parent-taught driver’s ed course.

By the time I took my driver’s test to earn my license, I think I was a pretty qualified, cautious and competent driver. After several months of working part-time to earn money to put toward a car, I had finally saved enough to cover my portion of the cost. My parents covered the rest, and I got my first car. I happily and carefully drove this car to and from school and my part-time job for exactly one year.

Then, one evening precisely one year after buying my first car, I was driving home after a school event, and out of nowhere, another driver slammed into my driver’s side door. I could see him turning onto the street I was traveling on without stopping at his own stop sign. He didn’t pause or brake at all before rounding into my path of travel. As I saw him coming, I knew immediately that he was coming too quickly and there was no way to avoid him hitting me. My airbag deployed and my glasses flew off, my door and front quarter panel were smashed in, the engine started smoking and I was somewhat trapped inside my car. After a moment of shock, I realized that I had to exit from the passenger side, and my car was destroyed. The other driver’s brand-new truck he had purchased just three months prior also was destroyed.

I’m relieved to say that I walked away from that accident without even a scrape (just a sore neck). However, I did sustain emotional and psychological injury from the incident. I was fortunate enough to speak with a counselor for a few sessions afterward to help me cope with the trauma.

Because of this experience, I believe that driver’s education should be left to professionals. As I ride with my teenage friends, I notice that many of them do not have a thorough knowledge of the rules of the road. They are unclear about issues such as right of way at intersections. Additionally, they do not anticipate what other drivers might do and prepare themselves properly. I feel that younger drivers may lack textbook knowledge of driving, but more importantly, they also do not have thorough on-the-road experience. I think that working with a certified driver’s education instructor would greatly increase teens’ ability to think through scenarios, anticipate situations, know how best to react to driving situations and prevent deaths due to automobile accidents.

One way we could prevent deaths is by increasing the amount of time student drivers spend with qualified instructors. We could do this by eliminating the parent-taught driver’s education option. I think all teens should be required to take professional driver’s education courses either online or in person as well as complete a specific number of hours with a certified driver’s ed instructor. I think the best way to increase driver confidence and ability is to spend plenty of time behind the wheel practicing. Spending that time behind the wheel with a qualified coach in the passenger’s seat is the best-case scenario for building competence and confidence.

In the case of my accident, perhaps the driver was distracted. Perhaps he was looking at his cell phone. Perhaps he was an uninformed or inexperienced driver. I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure why he proceeded into the intersection without pause. What I do know is that his driving was careless. When approaching a situation where you would be making a 90-degree turn onto another road, it is imperative to look before proceeding, whether there is a stop sign or not. A more cautious, conscientious, well-trained and tuned-in driver would know this and abide by it. My accident could have been much worse, and I’m grateful it didn’t result in serious injuries for either of us.

One thing that I do think Texas does right is to limit the number of non-family passengers a young licensed driver can have in the car. Until the age of 18, licensed teen drivers in Texas can only have one non-family member in the car. Although many parents do not enforce this law with their own teens, mine did, and I am grateful. Young drivers need as few distractions as possible while they become more experienced on the road. I can help keep my friends safe by insisting that they abide by this law.

If teen drivers were held to more stringent requirements to earn their driver’s license, I think we could reduce the number of deaths due to automobile accidents. By requiring professional driver’s education courses with plenty of time in the car with a certified instructor, we could turn out better drivers for today’s busier-than-ever roads. Additionally, legally limiting passengers for teen drivers would help decrease distractions.

The key to safety on the road? Ensuring we are creating competent, focused drivers who take the responsibility before we hand them the keys.

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