With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

With
Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

I
heard it before I saw it. 

 

I
waved goodbye to my friend, Nathan, and his dad after they dropped me
off after our evening lacrosse practice. As they pulled out into the
busy street, I turned around to enter my house and drop my bag.

 

Not
ten seconds after they had left, I heard a loud crunch accompanied by
the piercing screech of brakes burning against the asphalt. I whipped
around to see what had happened. At the end of the block, I could
clearly make out a horrifying sight: an errant driver had neglected a
stop sign entirely and directly collided with Nathan and his dad. 

 

My
heart jumped into my throat. I immediately ran down to see what had
happened, all the while praying that both Nathan and his dad were
okay. Thankfully, due to the relatively low speed of the collision,
both of them were mostly unharmed. However, Nathan suffered from a
broken wrist which would take him out of the lacrosse season for six
weeks. And while they would be physically okay, their car had been
completely totaled by the car that had ignored the stop sign. My
first reaction was pure shock. How could a neighborhood with
low-speed roads and simple driving patterns suffer from a crash bad
enough to wreck my friend’s car? It was that moment that I realized
nobody, not even veteran drivers, are safe from the risks of reckless
and distracted driving. 

 

In
2017 alone, nearly 20% of teenage drivers were involved car
accidents. The biggest problem that exists in the Drivers ed
process is the lack of consistency. In order for teenagers under the
age of 18 to acquire a driver’s license, they must take a seven-day
Behind the Wheel (BTW) course with a certified instructor. Yet, the
BTW courses vary significantly throughout private companies, many of
them focusing solely on completing the course with as many people as
possible to raise revenue. BTW needs to change from a
completion-based course to a skill-based course. Rather than driving
for seven days and having one final test, young drivers should
complete smaller, daily assessments on a variety of skills, from
driving in small neighborhoods to large interstates and freeways. 

 

Moreover,
everyone
on the road must be held accountable for reckless driving. This
includes phone usage, talking to other passengers, and driving under
the influence. It’s essential to make people aware of the resources
they have available to them. For instance, many helpful mobile
applications can be easily installed to prevent drivers from using
their devices while they are on the road. Furthermore, educating
passengers about their responsibility to maintain the safety of the
vehicle is just as important as educating drivers themselves. Through
a combination of changes to the licensing system and a renewed effort
to educate current drivers, we can take steps toward becoming safer
drivers, together, so that people like Nathan won’t have to worry
anymore when they’re on the road.