“It Will Not Happen To Me”

“It will not happen to me,” they say as they take one more gulp of their beer before turning on the ignition.

“It will not happen to me,” they say as they pull out their phone to check the text message they had just received.

“It will not happen to me,” they say as they drive with one hand because the other one is being used to apply makeup whist looking in a mirror.

“How did this happen to me?” they say as they look at the destruction they have caused with their vehicle.

Everyone wants to think that they are one in a million; that all the horrible things they see on the news could never possibly happen to them. A quick second on their phone or a small drink will not have any affect on them because it will not happen to them, right? This belief system is something almost all of us garner, yet it tends to be one of the most toxic mindsets we could have on the road. Each and every one of us is unique in the sense that our life stories and personalities differ drastically than the person in the car infront of us; however, that speciality is not an airbag that will save you from the impact of the crash your mistakes have caused. With car crashes appearing on our local news on the daily and thousands killed anually, Driver’s education is one of the most vital forms of education yet is ubiquitously overlooked many. A lot of us like to say we learn by doing, and that is a great concept, but it is not quite applicable when operating a machine that could kill you alongside others. Driver’s Education is offered both at numerous high schools and DMVs across the country; however, it is taught the same dependent on where you live. I was about to be a sophomore in high school when I moved from Minnesota to South Dakota. Although the states have proximity, it seems that their roads and regulations did not.

In the high school of Rosemount, Minnesota, a whole trimester of your school year was dedicated to Driver’s Education to be required to graduate including the following: over 100 pages of required reading, tests and quizzes on signs and specific laws, monologues from numerous individuals on their personal horror stories about the dangers of driving, walking with drunk goggles, and CPR certification just to pass the class. After such, you would be required to take the permit test and complete 50 logged hours—including 6 with a driving instructor and 15 hours at night—with a legal adult to be allowed to take the driver’s test when you turned 16. The test connsists of pointing out important pieces on your vehicle (such as windshield wipers, headlights, emergency brake…), basic road skills, and closed course maneuvers such as parallel parking, parking on a hill, and a 90 degree back in. In South Dakota, Driver’s education is not a required program. There are no required driving hours to recieve your license with the minimum driving age being just 14. The road test consists mostly of lane changes, simple right turns, and does not require any sort of parking. Not to mention the fact that due to the difference in taxes, South Dakota’s roads tend to be filled with more potholes than Minnesotas. Noting the differences between the two, let me provide you with some statistics: Minnesota is ranked #6 out of the 50 states for safest drivers with a 0.066 falality rate of per 1,000 drivers; South Dakota is ranked #42 out of the 50 states for safest drivers with a 0.158 falality rate of per 1,000 driver. Notice a difference? That is why Driver’s Ed is so important. There is a clear benefit in having more education enforced for driving presented by the statistics.

Given this, if states like South Dakota want to lower their their number of deaths related to driving, then they need to start acting more like Minnesota. Despite taking a well formulated test, the person behind the wheel has learned far less than someone who has completed a Driver’s Education course. Why? Driver’s Ed teaches for situations and lessons that cannot be taught during a test, such as extreme weather conditions, vehicle failure, and more. This lack of knowledge not only puts the driver at a much higher risk, but those who share the road with them. Think of it like herd immunity: the more people who get the vaccine, the more protected those are who cannot. The same is applicable to Driver’s Education. English, Math, Science, and History are all required subjects to learn to be seen as a successful individual, yet Driver’s Education—the one that teaches you about a machine that puts numerous lives at stake—is still seen as optional. Last time I checked, no one that I know has been killed by grammar, but numerous people have been killed in car accidents. Allowing kids to be able to drive so young and with so little practice is not only unsafe, but it is deadly. A higher driving age, required practice hours, and a mandated detailed Driver’s Ed course could greatly reduce fatality rates in driving related accidents.

However, despite all of these precautions, accidents are always accidents. Although education can help make them more preventable, stopping all sorts of driving accidents is indubitably unavoidable. Besides my age, as a straight A female student, I am seen by insurance companies on the safer side of teen drivers due to these factors; However, even I have been in a couple accidents. My first accident was just a simple fender bender: I was rear ended stopping at a stoplight on a busy street on my way to work. The reason? The other diver stated “I was not paying attention”. She was not driving her own car. She was driver her 8 month pregnant friend to the hospital in her friend’s car. She still did not have her attention on the road. Why? The same “It will not happen to me” logic that possesses so many drivers. The accident may not have been my fault, but I am still weary every time I drive in that location despite it being my daily route to work.Your actions can having lasting affects on not other yourself, but others as will. It can happen to you, so please, drive with caution.

Now, I would love to say I am a perfect driver, but perfection does not exist, and if it did, I would still be far from it. I have my bad driving habits as well. Speeding to school in a panic because I left late (a daily occurrence), blasting my music so loud it could be considered a distraction, using my phone to swap songs quickly at a red light, rolling stop signs when I know no one is present… Are these things that I am proud of? Of course not. I understand that the “It will not happen to me” is a mindset I have when I partake in these bad habits. However, the first step in breaking a bad habit is recognizing them. This is something I should be held accountable for by my peers, and I should do the same for them. Acknowledge that even though these actions will not always have a consequence, they most certainly can if unattended to. Mistakes are only mistakes if we learn nothing from them. I challenge you today to confess your own driving habits, and maybe even ask some else to do the same. At the end of the day, it is much better to be safe than sorry so it does not become your last end of the day.