“It won’t happen to me”

“It won’t happen to me. It won’t happen to me.” That is the mentality of many drivers on the roads today when they think about getting in a car crash. They use this mentality as justification to text and drive, drink and drive, and so much more. Then, it does happen to them, they do get in a crash. This mentality is not the one society should have when it comes to driving on the roads and drivers’ education is the start to the stop of this mentality.

I have grown up in the wonderful state of Wyoming where traffic is barely a thing we have to deal with. Empty highways, and long dirt roads though? We most definitely have those! Although Wyoming is particularly safe when it comes to student drivers or driving in general there is a lot of leeway with the empty roads. Often from my classmates I hear “How fast have you driven?” My answer? Well, it is always “Maybe five over the speed limit on the highway.” What are the speed limits on our highway, you may ask? Mostly 80 MPH is our max but sometimes I go a bit faster to pass the big, scary, tall semis in the Wyoming wind. These conversations that I have, they only feed into the “It won’t happen to me” mentality and is part of the unsafe driving we have in today’s society.

Driving education is especially important when it comes to reducing deaths as a result of driving. My community has been learning this more and more since this past fall. This past fall a local middle school boy was hit by walking across a crosswalk on his way to school. He sadly passed away a few days later. His death rocked my community and struck all of us driver’s. We as students, teachers, parents, and a community learned just how important driver’s safety truly is. If members of my community had better driver’s education and access to it maybe his death could have been prevented. This is a true, real-life example as to why a driver’s education is important when it comes to reducing deaths as the result of driving, because if my community had been better educated then we might still have a boy with a bright future with us.

I believe steps that can be taken to better reduce the number of deaths related with driving would be better access to driver’s education. In my community we have two known drivers ed programs. One of these programs costs money to take and while most people do put their children into this course, lots of families cannot afford to put their children into this program. The other drivers ed program in my community is free but to be able to pass you must provide your own car to drive in. While it is good that this program is free many families do not have cars so their children can be able to drive in this program. I think that accessible drivers ed for people would be a step in the right direction when it comes to reducing driving related deaths. Wyoming does a very good job at incentivizing drivers ed for students. If you successfully pass drivers ed and complete 40 hours of day driving and 10 hours at night, instead of having to take the drivers test you will just receive your license. In addition to that if you pass the course you will also be able to get your full license at sixteen and a half instead of seventeen. By creating this rule it incentivizes kids to take drivers ed and put in the time to learn about drivers safety. Here kids are learning true drivers education which helps reduce the number of driving related deaths.

I took pride in having never been in a car accident before. I watched as people around me got in fender benders, and other car accidents. I lasted a year and a half before I was in my first car accident. It came out of no where, I wasn’t expecting to be hit, I had things to do and places to be. My little sister (who had just recently gotten her license) and I went a different way leaving school that day, we had important interviews that we had to get ready for and instead of going home (North) we had to go downtown (South.) Traffic is pretty heavy leaving our school so we were sitting in the long line of cars at the stop sign. My sisters was changing the music as I was tapping my fingers on the steering wheel. All of a sudden we flew forward and heard a loud crash. We looked at each other and realized we had just been hit. I was freaking out that I had hit the car in front of me but because I knew the safe following distance, I didn’t hit them. The girl in the car behind us was also freaking out. I tried to calm down as I remembered what I had learned in drivers ed, I pulled out of line and of to the side of the road. First, I checked on my sister and I tried to remain calm as I racked through my brain everything I learned about getting into a car accident. We all had gotten out of our cars and stepped onto the sidewalk. None of us had been in this situation before. Eventually our parents/guardians showed up and so did an officer. We were all ok and the cars were still drivable, but we were all scared. We stood on the sidewalk for over an hour getting everything taken care of. My classmates and their parents rubbernecked at the sight of us on the sidewalk. Looking back I am glad that I was the one driving my Subaru that day. I didn’t want my sister with less driving experience to have to be the one with that on her conscious. Although no one was hurt I never want to be in a car accident again. The experience only opened my eyes to just how much power you have behind the wheel of a car. I try every day to remember what I learned in drivers ed. The class I took truly helped me stay calm in a scary situation and made sure that I did all the right things. To this day I continue to never text and drive, drink and drive, or just flat out never drive recklessly. I stay at a safe distance and follow the laws because I know just how much power you have behind the wheel of a car and just how much can be taken in an instance.