It Can Happen To You

Three Hundred and Sixty-Five days. Three Hundred and Sixty-Five days is how long you’ve waited to get into the driver’s seat of a car with nobody telling you what to do. Ever since you earned your Learner’s permit at 15, the countdown began. Many teens count down the days until they can drive alone. It’s a time of celebration, as it means freedom and independence, that you’ve reached another milestone. Teens imagine themselves in the driver’s seat cruising down the road, friends in tow, headed to a ball game, or whatever is going on at that time. What most don’t take time to consider is the enormous responsibility that is involved when you climb into the driver’s seat. Most don’t ever consider that anything will happen to them, they are completely invincible. Due to this, kids my age are getting seriously hurt and even dying. As drastic as it could be, It CAN happen to you… because it happened to me.

It was only about a year after I started driving. I was on top of the world. An open road at such a young age can induce the most euphoric feelings. I thought I was in control of everything, not considering for a moment that my irresponsible driving would not only endanger my life, but also the lives of those I had in the vehicle with me. I had grown more confident in myself until my world came crashing down. You see, I was driving much too fast going around a curve and my vehicle left the road and hit an embankment. The vehicle rolled three times landing on its side. It was dark outside and there weren’t many vehicles traveling this road. When the vehicle came to a stop, it took a minute to figure out what had happened. My two friends and I began screaming and trying to climb out of the car. It was the most frightening I’ve ever been in my life. Fortunately, no one had long-term physical injuries, but the emotional and mental stress was sometimes more than I could bear. I was extremely hard on myself for the months to come as I was the one who put us all in this predicament. It took a long time before I trusted myself to drive again, but I have become a much safer driver.

Looking at the data, there are more fatalities in highway crashes than half of the top ten U.S. combat deaths. Although looking closely at the data, the number of highway fatalities has somewhat decreased since 2005. This is probably due to the number of states requiring driver education. Currently, thirty-seven states require driver education. For example, the states of Georgia and Texas initiated Joshua’s Law on January 1, 2007. This is around the time the number of fatalities started to decrease. Most require 30-hour classroom instruction, while some also include behind-the-wheel training. Driver education classroom instruction is required in the state where I live. I attended the four-day class and learned of the dangers of driving. For some teens, this is enough to instill the enormous responsibility of driving. However, for some such as myself, it unfortunately didn’t occur to me that I would ever not be in control. You see, I was overly confident. Driver education has been effective in reducing the number of fatalities. I believe it can be further reduced by requiring ALL states to have mandatory classroom instruction and 30 hours of include behind-the-wheel training. This should involve student drivers experiencing all types of driving conditions including weather elements, the amount of traffic on the road, highways and more isolated roadways, and roads having varying elevations and curves. From my experience, I was more open to constructive criticism from people other than my parents. I also believe that many parents, for various reasons at no fault of their own, do not put their children in situations where they experience these driving conditions.

As far as what I can do to help myself and others become safer on the road, I have already taken some of these steps. For starters, I make sure to not put myself in a situation where I have to drive faster than needed, meaning I leave early when weather conditions are not favorable, and leave on time normally so I’m not running late. In addition, I share my story with new drivers. My younger sister was the first person I talked with about the importance of road safety and the tremendous responsibility a person has when they get in the driver’s seat. I have branched out and shared with her friends and other students in my school. When teens are attending driver education classes, the stories they hear about are of people they don’t know. This makes it a little less personal. It may help if local schools ask for volunteers of current or previous students to record a short testimonial that can be viewed. Ultimately, the more education a young driver receives, the better the chance they will take heed of the information.