Driving Kills

Sixty, seventy, eighty. As the speedometer goes up, more and more cars fly past you as you barrel down the highway, trying to beat your friends home. But they’re not just cars. Every car holds people, sometimes families, with lives of their own, simply trying to make it home safely. Lives that could end in an instant, if one wrong move is made.

As the second youngest in my family, I’ve heard and seen many stories of car accidents and reckless drivers. Every member of my family has been in at least one accident in their lives, due to the recklessness and improper driving of someone else on the road. People who either weren’t paying attention, or were driving recklessly on purpose. Because of this, driving is something I always take very seriously, and am cautious anytime I am behind the wheel. I often think that if so many accidents have happened in my family alone, the number of Americans who are in car accidents on a daily basis must be staggering. This often leaves me wondering, would things be any different if these people had gotten a proper driving education?

Driving education is extremely important, however most people don’t take it as seriously as they should, both individuals and state governments. In the short time before your permit test and the drivers exam in the state of Pennsylvania (where I am from), you must learn all of the functions of a motor vehicle, as well as have the ability to complete basic driving exercises, such as parallel parking, and simple driving courses. However, in Pennsylvania, this time between the exams is left to the driver to figure out all of these things on their own. This leads to many people not getting the proper education they need, leading to them being less prepared for the road once they finally become licensed drivers. According to PenDott, in the state of Pennsylvania, a state where drivers ed courses are not required in schools, 1,209 people were killed in car accidents in the year 2023 alone. This number does not include those who were injured or involved in car accidents.

However, some states do require driving classes as part of their curriculum. If you compare the previous number to a state like Vermont, where drivers ed is required in schools, you can begin to see how big of an impact mandatory drivers education classes make. In the year 2023 (according to the Department of Public Safety for Vermont) only 50 people were killed in car accidents in the year 2023. This shows how much safer roads are when drivers are given proper education. Not only does it require students to learn everything they need to prepare for the road, but it requires them to actively pay attention and retain this information, as they would be tested on this knowledge over the span of the course. If you do not live in a state where drivers ed is required in schools, a short drivers ed course could help you greatly as well. It only takes a little bit of time, but going the extra mile to prepare yourself for the road could help save your life, and the lives of others.

However, being knowledgeable is only a part of the problem. To truly decrease the number of car related deaths and injuries, everyone must not only be knowledgeable, but also careful when driving, as even in states where the population is more educated on driving, deaths are still caused by those who are careless while on the road. Although the safety of everyone on the road can’t always be guaranteed at any given time, if everyone on the road was required to take a drivers education course, and was careful and safe while driving, the death rate by car accidents in states like mine could be drastically reduced.

Drivers ed is extremely important in reducing the rate of deaths caused by car accidents. The difference in death rate between states where driver ed is required and states where it isn’t mandatory is staggering, and conveys just how important it is. If driver’s ed was required in every state, and if everyone just took that little bit of extra time out of their days to slow down and drive more cautiously, the roads would be a safer and more secure place, where families don’t need to worry whether or not they’ll be able to make it home alive or not.