When most high schoolers turn 16, their minds instantly rush to get their license. The ability to drive is crucial in a teenager’s life. However, in the Powell High School parking lot, some students feel that it is a hazardous environment.

To drive legally, you must pass the driver’s exam, though that doesn’t mean a person is a good driver. One aspect of the student parking lot that many students agree is unsafe is people purposely driving poorly.

“People need to learn how to not be hooligans and drift around,” junior Bryson Weddell said. “People are walking around during lunch … that can be a big deal.”

Students drifting in the parking lot could easily lead to an accident, especially with so many people walking in and out of it. Another flaw that some drivers share is their inability to back out of parking spaces. 

“Somebody [in the student parking lot] was driving a little too fast, and when they go to turn, they don’t turn,”  junior Logan Badura said. “And then they almost T-boned me when they are sitting there trying to pull out.”

According to Hutzler Law, 25% of accidents occur within the first three minutes of driving, most being caused when backing out. Accidents like this can be expensive and will put a dent in your vehicle and wallet. Not all students believe that people are accidentally driving badly, but instead doing so purposefully.

“I feel like the majority of people in there are good drivers,” senior Kendal Eden said. “When you get people that try to speed and act cool, [the problem] is a bit on the drifts.” 

Drivers doing cookies and drifting in the student parking lot are making other students feel unsafe, but with the rapidly changing weather of Wyoming giving us an abundance of snow, people’s desire to do more dangerous stunts has grown.

“Yeah, it’s not necessarily about not knowing how to drive in the snow. It’s about intentionally driving worse in the snow – people do it,” Badura said. “People are doing burnouts, they’re doing donuts, whipping [their cars].”

Another big issue with ice and snow is other cars sliding when they speed up too much. Some students fear an accident when people drive too fast. 

“Sometimes I will be sitting in my car, and then they will speed behind me,” Eden said. “It feels like they’re gonna get me, I can see it.”

All of these students can agree that some students are making the parking lot a perilous region where order needs to be restored, but the other side also has something to say about why students might be enacting these stunts.

“I have done a couple of burnouts, I’ve done some,” Weddell said. “It’s unnecessary, but it’s fun.”