CRUNCH!  That was the sound that I heard, the sound that I felt through my body upon impact.  I was driving on a crowded parkway with traffic congestion shifting like an accordion between quickly moving and fully stopped.  The car in front of me swerved.  It was avoiding a car in front of it that had stopped suddenly.  My reaction was not as quick.  There was nothing I could do except experience that sound, that feeling, as I collided with the rear bumper in front of me.  CRUNCH!  I could not believe it happened.  Though my air bag did deploy, thankfully, neither I nor the other driver were hurt.  So, in that sense, I was fortunate.  But, what a great reminder that driving can be dangerous.

Turning sixteen and getting my driver’s license was an exciting time for me.  I am active with sports and extracurricular activities.  Getting my license meant that I was finally able to do all of these things on my own, without the need for my parents to drive me around.  My parents and I worked a lot, even before I got my driving permit, on learning to control the car, park, hold the car in the road, etc.  I wanted to learn and was insistent on practicing with them whenever we could.  The difficult part – the real education, I think – was understanding how that all changes when you introduce speed and traffic.  I was, of course, nervous at first.  I did not want to make a mistake. But as I became more comfortable driving, the nerves faded, and I began to lose some of the appreciation for how dangerous driving can be.   

As a result of my accident, I fully support the statement that learning early to respect the dangers of driving is critically important to improve safety and reduce driving-related deaths.  Having been exposed to these dangers, even on the minor scale that I was, I could still hear that sound in my head and feel that CRUNCH through my body for days after the accident.  In that sense, experience was my best teacher.  But, okay, getting young drivers into accidents is probably not the safest way to teach about the dangers of driving.  It does beg the question, though, is there a way that drivers can safely be exposed to the dangers of driving?  Perhaps…

My high school driver’s education course was great.  We received plenty of instruction on the rules of driving, how to drive safely, and warnings about the dangers of driving (especially drinking and driving).  We were also fortunate to be a school that had a driving simulator.  While the simulator was great practice, it lacked the true feeling that comes with actually driving a car.  It was more like a video game than the real thing.  And because of that, I probably did not take it as seriously.  We were lucky to have that as an option, for sure.  I would imagine that, for many schools, the price of purchasing a simulator for students to use could be too much.  But, perhaps leveraging advances in Virtual Reality (VR) technologies and AI could help create a simulator that is more immersive, and also cost effective.  

Since Oculus was initially released in 2016, the world of VR headsets and gaming has grown rapidly.  There are a number of different compact models across an array of different price ranges.  The adaptability of the technology has advanced. Many current models, for example, allow integration of a user’s iPhone or Android for the VR experience.  To this end, an app designed to be connected to a VR gaming system that provides students with an immersive, real-world driving experience could be a way to help communicate the dangers of driving, in a safe setting.  With technology that is easily controllable through the app, students could be led through driving scenarios or different learning modules designed to replicate real-life situations – like driving at high speeds on an interstate, like driving in bad weather, or like driving in the accordion traffic that resulted in my accident.  The technology in this area is advancing so rapidly, that such a program could prove useful and effective.  Moreover, given the wide array of VR possibilities that exist, it could easily be cost effective for driving schools to adopt.

I am not sure there will ever be a perfect solution.  But I do know that the accident I experienced was much more impactful than I could have imagined.  It has helped me be a better (more cautious) driver, for sure.  And while I do not think we could ever fully recreate that experience in an instructional setting, perhaps using advanced technologies could be a way for young drivers to appreciate the dangers of driving beyond the typical classroom setting.