Calling all drivers

Dear Greenville Drivers:

There is this really neat little lever on the left side of your steering wheel. Push it up or down and it produces something appropriately titled as a "turn signal."

It functions to let other drivers know when you are preparing to change lanes or make a turn.

Is everyone with me? I'm not sure. It came to my attention the other day, as I saw yet another driver narrowly miss an accident on Greenville Boulevard, that most of us are inadequately prepared to be on the roads. Most North Carolina drivers had to go through the same process to get a license: drivers' education, get a permit then graduate to an actual license. It begs the question of why there are so many terrible drivers on the roads. In North Carolina, one teenager is killed every three days in an automobile accident. This statistic is a little startling.

When I started researching this article, I planned on making playful digs at common mistakes and pondering the issue of how effective drivers' education is. I used to feel like it didn't prepare its students properly for the more practical or complicated aspects of driving, but now I feel like it does a terrible job at preparing teens for the road in general. When I was 16, I got into a car accident that was mostly my fault.

I misjudged the distance between myself and another bad driver further up the road. As soon as I started pulling through a neighborhood intersection, they hit me on the passenger's side and effectively totaled my car.

It was one of those terrifying "how do I tell my mother" moments. It was also terrifying when the cops showed up and I had no idea what my registration card looked like. My teachers never told me, and my mother always made sure it was in my glove compartment, so it was a mystery to me.

I was ill equipped to handle the situation.

I have recently discovered that I am still ill equipped to handle many car related situations. The DMV in North Carolina planned the drivers' education classes in a time when complex traffic and highway patterns were not as popular as they are now. Therefore, they are not teaching their audience all the information needed to be safe and effective drivers.

My "practical driving" section of drivers education only went so far as to teach me how to change lanes and navigate my way through busy Fayetteville traffic.

I never learned how to do a three-point road turn or any practical road situations. As a matter of fact, I never learned how to change a tire or do a three-point road turn until after I failed my road test the first time.

That's a little scary. And every time I see one of my younger friends get behind the wheel and pick up their cell phone, I get a little terrified. I'm a seasoned veteran of car accidents. I've been in roughly four crashes, and after each one I was still amazed that I passed my drivers' test.

Every time someone teases me about parallel parking (or every time I have to find a parking spot beyond freaking everywhere) and my inability to do so, it strikes me that I wasn't given the best education. And if I wasn't, I'm not confident anyone else was. Three days from now, a North Carolina teen could lose their life because of the flaws in their drivers' education.

That's terrifying. What is even more terrifying is that tomorrow any person could be struck by a newly licensed teen who wasn't educated as fully as they should have been. I admit that maybe we all forget a little bit of that boring class. I myself disregarded most of the rules of the road as soon as my foot hit the gas pedal. I'm a notoriously bad speed demon that scares the wits out of most passengers. It's a rare day when my speedometer is reading under 75 on the highway, let me tell you. But after seeing the statistics, I'm a little weary of others on the road.

This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.