My introduction to driver’s safety is much different than most people I know. You see, my mom was a police and fire dispatcher and 911 call taker and my father was a motorcycle traffic officer for most of my life. I grew up seeing firsthand both the hard work that goes into a profession in law enforcement as well as the heartbreaking effects a split-second decision can make in the lives of so many people. 

This behind-the-scenes view of traffic safety from the perspective of the people who have the responsibility of life and death in their hands was just normal to me. I would overhear things they would talk about on the phone or when they thought I was asleep like “TC”, “Black Tag” and “triple-fatal” and although I had no idea at the time what they meant, the seriousness of their voices or the fact that they would slip into police code while talking let me know something really bad had happened. It would only be much later that I found out what these ominous words and phrases really meant. 

From the first 911 calls from panicked callers, to the incident investigations, reports and clean up of an accident scene, my parents worked shifts around the clock for years making a living trying to help others who had made bad decisions or had been the victim of someone else’s bad decisions. Whether it was the fatal drunk driving accident with the deceased driver still behind the wheel of his crushed vehicle with an open beer between his legs, or the motorcycle rider who was cut down while making a left turn in front of an oncoming driver who never saw him, these were not just scary stories, but part of the life lessons that were conveyed to me as people who worked the other side of the yellow tape. I’m sure I don’t know the full story on many of the accidents they worked, but within reason and when I was old enough, I learned very clearly that operating a moving vehicle was an incredibly serious responsibility. 

My own driver’s training started long before I ever got behind the wheel of a car. Trips to the grocery store and the ride to and from school when I was a kid were valuable opportunities for my mom and dad to point out cars that were taking a turn too fast or following too closely. I began to be much more aware of the situations around me as a young passenger. I can still remember my mom telling me, “Try to avoid left turns if you can - remember they are extra dangerous”. Or “Take 5 seconds when the red light turns green and look both ways before driving through it”; because they knew that people run red lights all the time at a higher rate of speed when they are trying to speed up through the light just as you are entering the intersection from a complete stop on a green light. I heard them talking about things like skid and crush analysis when we would pass an accident scene while driving and the technical parts of what they were saying always amazed me. They were always careful not to inspire paranoia or fear, but it all conveyed a clear and serious understanding of the responsibility of driving a vehicle. 

As I look back now, most of what they pointed out on those car rides when I was a kid, was not really the rules of the road necessarily, but was centered more on learning to be a more defensive driver. That was the moral to the story nearly every time. Things like, “Stay way back from the line at the intersection where the semi-truck is going to make a left turn in front of you - he needs more room to turn” are extremely helpful to me now as a newer driver. Aside from all the obvious bad decisions that drivers can make, there are a lot of accidents or at the least “incidents” that can be avoided by just being aware of potential pitfalls on the road. Knowing that light cycles can vary and malfunction, sometimes making a light go from green then yellow and red very fast makes you pay much more attention to them as you drive. Rather than giving me more fear or uncertainty as a new driver, this knowledge has made me a better and more informed driver today and I am extremely grateful to have had this experience early in my life and learned that driving, while fun and exciting sometimes, is also a tremendous responsibility that needs to be taken seriously by me and everyone else who is trying to get home safely.