To Prevent Devastating Loss

Over the past four summers, I have had the privilege to work as the Pool Manager/Head Lifeguard at Salvation Army’s Camp Heart O’ Hills. During lifeguard certification training, candidates are given the resources, knowledge, and opportunity to practice handling aquatic emergencies ranging from bee stings to submerged spinal injuries. We are taught to manage the fatal so that we can handle the facile. This same principle is to be applied to the education of young drivers – instilling in them the equivalent respect for the vehicle as the lifeguard has for the water. In addition to respect, aspiring drivers are to receive the same urgency of education to receive their license to drive. This includes providing the resources, knowledge, and opportunity to practice traffic safety. If a lifeguard were handed their certification but lacked formal training, what is to become of the aquatic emergencies they are to handle? Without a speedy solution, there will continue to be devastating losses in public traffic.

To reduce the number of deaths related to driving, aspiring drivers should be given resources, knowledge, and the opportunity to practice traffic safety. This can be provided in public schools as a required elective to be a tool to train students for the written and practiced assessment to receive their state driver’s license for any class of vehicle. By providing this opportunity, deaths related to driving will decrease due to the increase in awareness. Although these courses are mandated in most states, it would greatly benefit public traffic safety if it was mandated at the federal level. Regardless of the class of motor vehicle – the income, age, race, etc. of the student, it is the federal government’s responsibility to govern the public and provide the resources to keep said public safe. Just as it is mandatory to receive an academic education in the U.S. until a certain age, so should traffic education.

70% of a lifeguards’ responsibility is to prevent emergencies by proactively enforcing aquatic safety. This is another mirrored principle found between aquatic safety and driver safety. With no prevention, comes tragedy. Last summer, my brother lost his life in a fatal car accident that could have been prevented by his proactive attention and initiative to practice traffic safety. When he fell asleep at the wheel, Eli became a part of the appalling statistic, organized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: as a result of driving, on average, 34,000 Americans die each year. Is that not awful? My parents lost their son because of a moment’s lack of respect for driver safety. It is from this experience that I implore young drivers and State Administration to proactively enforce the practice of driver safety.

Especially after the loss of Eli, I have adopted a more urgent practice of personal responsibility and integrity in traffic safety. It is the responsibility of the individual to exercise the expectation one wishes to see from the public. My expectation is for every driver to follow traffic laws and take the initiative to prevent tragedy – to drive as if the lives of others are at stake because they are. Furthermore, it is the passenger’s duty to practice integrity. If their driver is not respecting the vehicle or the public, it is the passenger’s responsibility to remind drivers not to take the duty lightly but understand that when behind the wheel, the public is at the driver’s mercy. This means obeying traffic laws, putting on their seatbelt, and considering other drivers on the road. In addition to this, it is the driver’s duty to consent to be governed by traffic authorities. When mistakes are made, the responsible party should be held accountable for their mistakes. With the lack of proactive prevention and correction from either drivers or passengers or governing authority, there will be devastating losses.

By providing a federally mandated traffic education, public accountability between drivers, passengers, and traffic authority the American traffic related deaths will decrease significantly. This will not happen without the commitment of the public and the initiative of the federal government. Grafting traffic safety into public educations curriculum will promote each of these solutions by instilling equivalent respect for the vehicle as the lifeguard has for the water. Early introduction will solve the problem before it begins, so why chance it? From my knowledge, it is better to take initiative than to grieve. No parent deserves to bury their child, so I beseech aspiring drivers, lisenced drivers, passengers, and authorities to understand the power one has behind the wheel of a motorvehicle and do whay they can to practice personal integrity.