The Angry Driver

I hear the blaring sound of the radio, vibrating off the dashboard. I look over at my dad who is driving. His face is crinkled like he smelt last Tuesday’s garbage and his skin is bright magenta. The tension in the air is so apparent that other drivers surrounding notice. I take a deep breath and sink into my seat, not saying a word. “Get out of MY way!” he yells, “Idiots, Lorrin. Nothing but idiots on the road.” I don’t respond. We are swiftly moving at 80 miles per hour when the sign we just passed displays 50. Swerving and pushing through traffic, my dad looks over in my direction. “It’s not your driving you have to worry about, it’s everyone else’s.” Once we arrive back home, he slams on the breaks, throws the car into park, yanks the emergency break and proceeds to roll out of the car. I sit there in silence, catching my breath, and wondering if I am going to end up just like this – an angry driver.

I have always been embarrassed when driving with my dad. It was something that I dreaded and something I hoped I never turned into. When it came time, during my early teenage years, to learn how to drive manual, I cringed at any thought of him teaching me along with the fear of making any mistake along the way. Because of this, I never did learn how to drive a manual car from him, and later had taught myself. I was happier for it and learned how to navigate the roads without bursting into agony. This is not to say that I did not acquire many of his driving mannerisms. In fact, once I started driving, I found myself staring at a stop light with my left foot shaking and taping the floorboard. “Hurry up! Are you really that slow?” I would think to myself.

I never realized that it was a problem until recent years when my good friend of two years was sitting in the passenger seat like I once did years ago with my dad. An older lady in front of me had slammed on her brakes and made a steady, slow turn to the right. Without skipping a beat, I yelled, “Turn on your blinker next time!!” I looked over into the passenger seat and I saw a face staring back at me in disbelief. His eyes widened and his face white like a ghost staring back at me. There was silence in the car. The type of silence that makes you feel guilty for your own actions. Before, my outbursts were something I held onto like a secret, but something I could no longer hide.

I knew I had a problem, and I was turning into the one thing that I dreaded the most. I realized, like most cases that occurred in my life, I was too wound up and stressed all the time. Whether it was school, work, or just the agony of life weighing on my shoulders, I always seemed to be on edge and driving somehow threw me off that edge in seconds. I started practicing breathing techniques when I found myself in these predicaments. “In…. one… two… three… Out… one… again” slowly chanting in my mind. After three rounds of breathing exercises, I found the anger dissipating into the air, and I felt new again. Not only this, but because I was such a stickler on being on time, I would leave an extra 20 minutes earlier to anywhere I needed to go, and this seemed to relieve the stress better than I could have imagined.

I know that driving with someone who has road rage and being someone who has had road rage can be more dangerous than it can be helpful. I have personally experienced this and is the main reason I am so conscious about it now. Growing up, in fact, I didn’t learn much about drivers’ safety and how practical it really is. I never did learn that more than 32,000 people are killed and 2 million are injured each year from motor vehicle accidents. I never did learn that drunk driving contributed to more than 10,000 crash deaths and that speeding contributes to over 9,500 deaths (CDC, 2016). The fact of the matter is, I never learned this information, and I never gave a second thought to this, especially once I started driving at 16. The notion of “Driver’s Education” when I was in high school was a basic knowledge of driving and more or less how to operate a car, rather than what to look out for, what to avoid, and the consequences of negative actions while driving. A revised and improved Driver’s Education course would not only beneficial to those who are actively driving on the road, but also to those all around. According to Georgia and Kass (2017), Driver Education is associated with reduced incidences of both crashes and convictions – reducing crashes by 4.3% and convictions by nearly 40%. This holds to be most effective, especially in teen years, since 25% of teen drivers get into car crashes and the risk doesn’t drop until they hit 25 years of age (Georgia, Kass, 2017). It is apparent here that Drivers’ Education is beneficial for present drivers and how they view driving in the future, if, of course, it includes lessons and real-life statistics that back the information. By allowing young adults, and first-time drivers to have the resources available to them about driving and the safety that comes along with it, it will drastically lower these previous statistics. To ensure the safety of all, Drivers’ Education must be taught with the upmost importance and focus, in order to save the lives of millions across the globe.