Six people in my school have been in car accidents this past year. Five had totaled cars. Three had minor injuries. Two had severe injuries. One died. I didn’t know the girl who died, but I see the memorial on her locker every day on my way to lunch. I knew the boy who broke both his legs, I sat next to him in band class every day of middle school. The brother and sister who suffered from a concussion and severe neck pain for the next few weeks were my neighbors. I was friends with the boy who had scrapes up his arms and legs from the roadburn. 

Everyone has a story like this, a parent, a sibling, a friend. Yet road safety is still not given the gravity it deserves as a topic. People still drive tipsy, tired, high, distracted, people who do everything right still die and get injured daily. Of the people I listed, two were distracted, two were tired, one was high, and one was hit from behind. These accidents could have been prevented with a more comprehensive  driver’s education program. In many cases, all one has to do to get their license is pass an online course run by their school and drive 50 hours with an instructor or their parents. 

This is not enough for many teens to gain confidence in their driving skills or to properly understand the risks associated with driving. They are warned against drunk driving and texting while driving, but the effects of fatigue are overlooked. The statistics are shared but the personal stories of those who died are neglected. They aren’t given actionable steps to prevent unsafe driving in their life, whether it’s with their friends or their parents. 

Drivers Ed needs to be taught with a bigger focus on empathy, and stopping others from driving unsafely. Many teens and new drivers tune out the advice against drunk or distracted driving because they think they’ll never do it. They don’t consider that their ride may have been drinking or that sometimes it will be their passengers who cause the distractions and how to handle these situations safely. This can be fixed by putting the focus on stopping those around them from driving unsafely. Don’t just tell teens not to drive impaired, give them steps to make the road safer for everyone, give them a plan of action to feel more in control of the dangers of the road. The point of further empathy in the training shouldn’t be to scare teens into making good choices, it should be to make them more conscious of how their actions on the road can impact others and what they can do to make driving safer for everyone. They should be given opportunities to practice what to do or say in different scenarios so they are better prepared. It should teach them to stop their friend from grabbing their phone while driving even if it’s awkward, to stop  someone from driving home if they’re drunk or they look tired, and to not be afraid to tell a friend to focus on the road. It should teach them that a little bit of awkwardness or conflict is better than injury or death. Teens should be taught that road safety means teaching others to be safe as well. 

One of the most overlooked impairments among drivers today is fatigue, especially in teenagers. Teens and young adults are at a high risk for drowsy driving because not only do they need more sleep than adults, but they may not be getting enough sleep because of their busy schedules with school, jobs, sports and other activities. Teens should be able to recognize when they’re too tired to drive, and to recognize when a friend looks tired so they can stop them by giving them a ride, or call them so they have someone to talk to to keep them awake on the road. 

I have four younger siblings and I try to be an example for them when it comes to safe driving. I don’t want any of them to become a road safety statistic. I shut off my phone, keep my hands on the wheel, stop fully at every stop sign, and drive the speed limit; I’m not afraid to tell them to quiet down when I need to focus on the road or they’re distracting me. They might call me boring but they know I won’t risk driving recklessly with them in the car and so many people around me on the road. I am driving 3,000 pounds of metal that could easily kill me or others; I need to be careful to be safe. The effects of one bad decision can have long lasting consequences. 

The girl at my school who died would have graduated last year. She would be in college. But she was late to school, speeding without her seatbelt on while on her phone. She’d probably done it a thousand times before the one time it killed her. And now I walk by her memorial every day on my way to lunch. A tangible reminder of how serious we should all take driving.