Driving: Not as Easy as Riding a Bike

I could only remember a few details before the incident; the sunlight bouncing along my dashboard, the soft leather wheel under my hands, and the blaring pop music on the radio. I didn’t hear the car horn in time. I didn’t feel my world ripped away from me until the car crashed into mine. A large white truck hit the front of my car, just inches away from my driver’s side door. It was only a few weeks after I got my license. I didn’t know what to do so instead of checking the damage, I was frozen by a single thought: What if the cars behind me don’t stop? What if I don’t make it out okay? I braced for another impact, but nothing happened. When I looked up, I saw an angry middle-aged man poke his head out of his truck. He shouted a slur of curse words at me before he drove away from the scene. When he left, I was stunned. All I could do was drive home and tell my mom.

My mom had always been logical, so when I told her about the accident, she wanted the details. I was driving home from our local gym. I entered a roundabout with two lanes. I was on the outer lane. The truck driver was on the inner lane, going straight through the roundabout. Instead of yielding for the outer lane, he tried to cut me off. After the hit, he abandoned the scene before he could give me his contact information. It was a hit and run. My mom told me to jot all the information down, while she called the police. Once the policeman found out the location, he sighed. He told us that that location was notorious for wrecks. He also told us that the man that hit me also filed a police report. My mom contacted our insurance company. She sat me down to repeat everything I jotted down on a scrap piece of paper. I felt like somehow, I was destined to fail. I was a young teenager who just got my license. Who are they going to believe in this situation? Despite my worries, both insurance companies dropped the case. I was told next time that I had needed a witness. But I wasn’t worried about a witness at the time; I was worried about making it out alive.

For weeks after the accident, I silently cursed the man that hit me. He was old enough to have a wife and kids. Would he lie to them about who was at fault in the car crash? Then it hit me. He probably didn’t know that he was at fault. The police officer on the phone with my mom did say that accidents like that happen all the time in that roundabout. Maybe the man wasn’t aware that drivers in the inner lane of a roundabout must yield to drivers in the outer lane. That was the day I learned that driver education is important. Everyone is told not to drink and drive, but how many people actually pay attention to the rules of the road? Once someone gets their license, do they become so familiar with their route that they forget the lessons they learned from their driver education? No one asks those questions because people think they are common sense. I’ve met a few people who would have laughed in my face if I ever asked a question about driving because they think driving is as simple as riding a bike. But driving isn’t like riding a bike. Driving can lead people to an early grave if people aren’t careful enough. Yet so many people remain silent even if they have questions. Learning how to drive as a teenager is wonderful, but humans are forgetful. We forget simple things like how many inches away a driver needs to be away from a curve or what a specific sign means. Driver education can only reduce deaths if drivers extend that knowledge beyond their teen years. We must stop fearing judgement. We must start asking questions about driving that we don’t know.

The hit and run also made me think about how I can be a safer driver. I know I can’t change people’s actions when they drive, so I had to decide how I had to act to keep myself safe. I’ve learned that I must be a proactive driver instead of a reactive driver. I can’t react to a hit and run, because then I am too late. However, I can be weary of other drivers. Ever since the accident, I have been taking notes of risky driving. If a driver doesn’t use their blinker, I watch their movements, so I know what direction they are going. If a driver is tailing too close behind me, I make sure I break slowly so they don’t hit me. If there is a roundabout with two lanes, I make sure I am in the inner lane so that I can yield to people instead of hoping they yield to me. This proactive method has kept me safer than when I was reactive. I have not been in a crash ever since I made that life-altering change. However, even with a proactive mind, there are still drivers who risk both their lives and others because they can’t afford to be patient. There are so many drivers that I see cruising in the center lane to get into a left turn lane because they want to avoid the traffic. I’ve seen people almost collide straight on because some drivers value their time over another’s life. Too many people dismiss this behavior as normal. Too many people remain silent. But that silent won’t last once someone gets hurt.

Driving is a privilege, not a right. If I had one hope for anyone behind a wheel, I hope they are proactive and law-abiding. I hope that they carry on their driver education. But ultimately, I hope no one has the misfortune of their life being taken away by reckless driving. I have never felt so scared in a car when I was hit. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know if I would be able to walk away. But I did walk away and compared to other accidents, it was minor. Some people aren’t so lucky. So, the next time you drive, please be weary of both your driving and the people driving around you. It might just save someone’s life.