The Serious Implications of Being a Driver.

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Most teenagers look forward to getting their license. One can gain a sense of freedom from driving and they do not have to rely on adults to get them where they need to go. Being able to drive without an adult enables teenagers to make more plans with friends and explore places outside of where they normally go. However, just because being able to drive is exciting, does not mean it comes without risk. Approximately, 34,000 people a year die as a result of unsafe and irresponsible driving. It is important to know the serious implications of being a driver and use them to make oneself, and everyone else’s driving experience better and safer.

Driver education is a class that is required before one can even get their permit to practice driving with an adult before one gets their license. But, most people do not even pay attention to their teachers or, when they do, are bored and see the class as a waste of time. The information is boring, yes, but it is important to know all of the information before one goes out onto the road so they can be safe, responsible, and know how their actions impact others on the road. Driver education can teach a student drivers the proper safety requirements for driving, even the common sense ones. For example, wearing a seatbelt. ABC news reports on a study from the University of Tokyo that estimates around eighty percent of deaths in cars from car crashes could have been prevented if the rear passengers had been wearing their seatbelts, a simple thing that most people know to do. But there are other things that driver education teaches that a lot of people do not know. For example, there is supposed to be a three second following distance between one person driving and another. Most people do not follow this rule after they take their road test to get their license. But this rule, like many others, is in place for safety and can prevent major accidents resulting in death. If there was no driver education people would not be taught the rules of the road and everything would be in chaos. There would probably be more accidents then there already are and most people would just be overall unsafe on the road. Driver education is in place for everyone’s safety on the road, not just the people driving. Which is why it is up to the drivers to make sure the road is safe for all of their passengers and for the passengers to create safe conditions inside the vehicle and refrain from distracting the driver.

In addition to knowing the importance of driver education and how learning the information can help prevent car accidents and death, there are steps that can be taken to make the road a safer place. Although driving safely does not only come down to one driver on the road, it is important for every driver to take steps to make the road a safer place. Some steps that can be taken are: a more interactive and fun driver education class to keep the students more engaged, to require or strongly suggest that student drivers take a defensive driving course, and to require adults to not only retake the road test, but also the permit or written test. By making the driver education class more exciting and interactive students would actually want to go to driver education class and look forward to learning the information. The more engaged the students can be the more information they will learn, retain, actually apply to the road, and talk about. Also, if students are talking about what they did in class that day with their families they may remind the other drivers of some of the rules of the road. A defensive driving course is a great way to learn how to drive safely if other drivers are driving aggressively or just to keep one’s car and passengers safe in general. It also teaches some maneuvers that students may not learn in the driving hours with a driving instructor during the six hour requirement to get one’s permit. By requiring drivers to retake the road test and the written test when they want to renew their licenses it will ensure that they are still knowledgeable on the rules of the road and did not learn the information just to pass the permit test.

Even if driver education is more engaging and most people are taking steps to ensure the safety of drivers and passengers, sadly, not everyone will listen, and there will still be car accidents. Personally, I was in a car accident with someone who was not paying attention to the road as they should have been. I was coming to a stop as we were approaching a red light and the car in front of me was stopped. My friend was driving her car behind mine and was texting while driving, not paying attention to the road. Still going about thirty miles an hour he rear ended me. My entire bumper split in half and one of my tail lights was out completely while the other was dim. I had hit my head on my steering wheel and while I did not get a concussion there was a big bruise on my forehead and I had whiplash. We had to pull over into an empty parking lot because there was no shoulder on the road. It was an overall stressful situation and it put a heavy strain on our friendship. All just because she thought texting was more important than driving safely.

Even though I consider myself a pretty safe driver as I do not text and drive, or get road rage, I know there are steps that I can take to improve my safety while driving. Some steps I can take are: continuing to not drive under the influence, making sure I am not speeding, making sure the passengers in my car will not distract me and let me focus on driving, paying attention to the road more and not dissociate whilst I drive, taking a defensive driving course, and making sure I keep a three second following distance. I can also help other people being safe on the road by making public service announcements about road safety and posting them to my school’s and personal social media, making sure no one I know or am with will drive under the influence, speaking up if I am in the car with someone driving irresponsibly, volunteering to help other people brush up on traffic laws and road safety tips, and setting an example for other people to follow by driving safe and following the rules.

In conclusion, driver education is an important part of staying safe on the road and more people would learn and retain the laws if the classes were more interactive. However, it is on all of the drivers on the road to make it a safe and secure place for other drivers and the passengers in all vehicles. It is fairly easy to get into an accident simply by texting while driving and not paying attention so it is important to always be aware and cautious of one’s surroundings. Everyone should brush up on their knowledge about safe driving and understand the implications of being a driver.

Carpenter, Jeff. “Seat Belts Can Save Others’ Lives Too.” ABC News, abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117053&page=1#:~:text=The%20study’s%20authors%20estimate%20the,had%20been%20wearing%20seat%20belts. Accessed 26 July 2023.