Young drivers behind the wheel are not as experienced as older drivers, who are aware of the ins and outs of dealing with an accident. New student drivers have become more vulnerable to manipulation in car accidents because they are less experienced and don’t know how to properly handle the situation. According to students, car accidents are a problem at BSM that are usually overlooked, labeled as something that happens to most young drivers.
Students who park at BSM and across the street at Beth El Synagogue claim that leaving the parking lot at the end of a school day is disastrous. There are a lot of newer drivers all trying to back out and leave at the same time, and accidents are bound to happen. “Some of them suck at driving and cut people off; I’ve experienced this myself,” junior Grace Grandstrand said.
Senior drivers get parking passes to park in front of the school, while juniors and sophomores are assigned to park across the street. This can often cause stress with 200 students trying to leave the parking lot at once, and pedestrians also walking through at the same time. “In sophomore year, I used to have to wait until 30 minutes later to leave the parking lot so that I didn’t get in a crash,” junior Maya Western said.
Teenagers often get the reputation of being reckless drivers who don’t know what they are doing on the road, and when they are involved in accidents, it is easy for their lack of experience to take the blame. Many people believe that these accidents are too common and question the amount of training given to upcoming drivers. “I think that new drivers aren’t experienced enough, and a lot of the time it is their fault, and I think that new drivers should take more safety precautions and should not be as reckless as I’ve seen them be,” Western said.
However, there’s also another side to these situations. Grandstrand explained how it can be dangerous for inexperienced drivers to get into small accidents. She described a few possible outcomes, such as exaggerating injuries, wrongfully assigning blame, and claiming that the cost of repairs is more expensive than they are. “I was sitting in a parking lot with my hazards on for two seconds to pick up a friend, and this lady backed into my door. She kept saying, ‘It’s fine, it’s not that big of a deal, ’” Grandstrand said.
In situations like the one Grandstrand experienced, younger drivers are often not as aware of how to handle the situation because they have not been driving for a long time. In this situation, Grandstrand did not get the woman’s insurance and was unable to repair the damage made to her car, which made her upset. Grandstrand shows her concern for future drivers to end up in the same situation she was in and their unknowing vulnerability. “They’re young and have just gotten their license, they don’t understand what’s supposed to be happening when they get hit or hit somebody else,” Grandstrand said.