Preventing What I Saw This Morning: Learning From a Young Age

Today is Thursday, July 27, and just this morning, on my way into work with my mom, we came to a halt because an accident had just taken place along our usual route. Emergency responders hadn’t arrived yet, so the scene we saw included a totaled car and motorcycle on the side of the road, along with a man lying in the middle of the road. The man did not seem to be moving at first, but another man approached him, and we saw the man begin to move. Had we left our house just a minute earlier, my mom and I could have been the ones involved in that accident. This incident that I witnessed just this morning goes to show the importance of knowing how to drive safely, along with knowing how to react should a certain situation arise.

Fortunately, I have never been in a motor vehicle involved in an accident, nor have my family members or friends. I myself have been through a driver education course offered through my high school, but this course looked a lot different than it normally would because of the pandemic. Instead of having in-person driving lessons guided by an instructor, I had Zoom classes with an instructor who went over important information from a textbook with us. My parents were now responsible for teaching me how to drive; they had to rate my execution of a variety of different techniques as I drove and submit a log to the instructor. Lucky for me, my parents have been extremely safe drivers their entire lives, and my father knows more than anyone I know about safe driving because he is a retired police officer. Having a good example as a young and inexperienced driver can be one of the most important aspects of preventing unsafe driving habits at an older age, thus potentially reducing the number of fatalities that occur from reckless driving.

I do believe, though, that learning how to be a responsible driver should begin long before an adolescent gets their hands on the wheel for the first time. Every motor vehicle operator was once a passenger, which is where learning the best driving habits should begin. Parents should encourage their children to buckle their seatbelts from a young age, and they should encourage their children to do the same in different settings, such as while spending time with friends. It is also important for young passengers to become increasingly aware of the importance of being observant of their surroundings. Constantly being on the lookout for wildlife near roadways can prevent countless collisions, and learning this lesson from a young age can better ensure that an adolescent driver will be more aware and cautious when it comes to an encounter with wildlife. Of course, these points are also emphasized in typical driver education courses, yet having these ideas and practices instilled at a young age can strengthen the importance of said ideas and practices in the minds of young people who are behind the wheel for the first time.

Many of the deaths that occur because of motor vehicle accidents are caused by biomechanical distractions, or any distraction that forces you to remove your hand from the wheel and your eyes from the road. These distractions can be as simple as adjusting the volume of the radio or taking a bite of something to eat while you’re in a hurry. One of the most common distractions of this type is texting while driving. While driver education classes cannot prevent people from having access to their mobile devices while driving, they can certainly encourage it by demonstrating what could happen if you were to do something, like send a text, while driving. My driver education course instructor shared a graphic video over our Zoom meeting one evening, and the video depicted an individual who had been covered with burns while involved in a motor vehicle accident. The individual’s life had changed forever because of what happened in less than a second. Sending a single text message or taking a single bite of food could have the same effect on you or another person, which is why it is best to simply state not to perform these kinds of actions while driving. Instilling these ideas in the minds of young people could also become invaluable when they become older and more experienced drivers, as they would be more likely to follow the example of a parent who silenced their phone while driving in an effort to keep their children safe.

The best way to prevent motor vehicle accident fatalities from climbing any further would be to be the person who sets the example of what safe and responsible driving looks like. This can be as simple as leaving your phone in a bag or shutting it off while behind the wheel so that your passengers might pick up the same habits. Telling your passengers to properly fasten their seatbelts could encourage them to do the same in their own vehicle, thus reducing the likelihood of more serious injuries should they be involved in a collision. Simply taking a driver education course and encouraging your friends to do the same could teach many adolescents the safest and most responsible techniques so that they could better handle any situation they are presented with. Just after seeing what I saw this morning, I am more likely to be cautious and aware of all the people around me, whether they be motorcyclists, pedestrians, or other motor vehicle operators. I would not want myself or anyone else I know to be the man I saw lying in the road this morning, and learning how to be a safe and responsible driver can surely help prevent that from happening.