The Importance of Driver Safety

Driver safety is such an important topic, it is a matter of the safety of people’s lives. So that is why I wanted to discuss a few topics and things that I want to discuss in this paper. First being what is the importance of driver education in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving? Second, what steps can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving? Have you ever had an experience of being in a car accident or have seen your friends or family members driving irresponsibly? And lastly What steps can you take to be a better and safer driver as well as help others become safer on the road? All of these questions help us understand the importance of preventing and helping with distractions on the road.

Firstly, What is the importance of driver education in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving? Think back to a time when you showed up to do something that you really didn’t understand what you were doing. This might be a test you didn’t study for, or showing up to a new job in a field that you are not familiar with at all, you probably seemed and felt pretty lost, reliant on those around you and really unsure at first. But now on the opposite side, think of a time when you showed up to do something that you were fully aware and prepared for, like a test you studied for through out the span of a whole week, or going to do something that your friend gave you vivid instructions for and helped you know exactly what to expect and you also have some experience with doing that activity before. You might feel a little unsure about the situation because you don’t have perfect experience but you feel much more prepared then the first situation when you went into something with no knowledge or experience. Well the same concept goes for driving, and drivers education. When we are able to inform and help new drivers understand the rules and regulations of driving before we throw them behind the wheel and on to the road we are better able to prevent feelings of misunderstanding and mistakes that are going to happen. Now don’t get me wrong, new drivers still need to learn through driving and experience and will become more confident the more they drive, but its important that we set them up for success by giving them drivers education programs before they get in the driver’s seat. It makes all the difference for students to be prepared before getting in the car, especially because of the risks that come with driving, not only is their safety in consideration but the safety of others on the road as well. “ A study by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that driver’s ed significantly reduces teen crashes and tickets. According to this study of 150,000 teen drivers over eight years, teens who didn’t take driver’s ed were 75% more likely to get a traffic ticket, 24% more likely to get in an accident with fatalities or injuries, and 16% more likely to have an accident in general.” The facts show that there is a difference in preparing students to drive before they drive, and helping them when they are first driving, this difference can mean the difference between injury and even death. So in the big picture of keeping our roads safe and allowing for less death and injury related to driving it is important that we are allowing for new drivers to be able to have access to drivers education programs before getting behind the wheel.

Secondly, What stops can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving? There are a few vital things that we can do to prevent driving related deaths the main point that I wanted to talk about more in depth is preventing distracted driving. Distracted driving can consist of many things from texting to eating to talking while driving, anything that is taking your attention or even just part of your attention away from the road is considered distracted driving and distracted driving can be fatal resulting in the loss of lives in many cases. So in preventing death from driving related accidents we need to learn how to prevent driving distractions for ourselves as drivers and help others be less distracted as drivers as well. This can mean informing others of the danger of distracted driving and helping them to see the importance and doing our best to be prepared to drive when we are driving rather than trying to multitask, we need to focus. So to summarize the question of how we can reduce the number of deaths related to driving, we need to educate and help drivers be prepared through drivers education courses as well as helping prevent and limit distracted driving and anything else that is going to hinder drivers from not giving their full attention to the road while driving.

Continuously, have you ever had an experience of being in a car accident or have seen your friends or family members driving irresponsibly? I have had the experience of being in a car accident while I was driving before, I was not the one that caused the accident but there were some things related to the accident that could have been prevented with more education and less distractions on the other drivers part. The accident happened when I had pulled over to the side of the road in response to an emergency vehicle, the vehicle had passed and I was in the process of looking back wards to merge back onto the road, upon doing so that car behind me started to as well and was going much faster than me so I decided I would wait to merge until it was safe. As I looked back after the car behind me had gotten back to the road there came a truck barreling towards me at record speed and hit the back driver side of my car and then proceeded to go and hit the other car that had previously been behind me. Thankfully no one was hurt in the accident, but when I was talking to the driver that hit both my car and the other car, he said that he had not seen my car on the side of the road because he wasn’t paying attention to see it there, it was not in the road and in his path of driving if he had simply been paying attention he would have not hit either of the cars he did that day. It was a nerve racking situation because it could have been much worse, I am grateful that nothing more serious didn’t happen and that no one was seriously hurt but it really made me think about how focused I am when I am driving. There are a few lessons that I learned from that accident. Firstly, make sure that you are following the laws of the road, the speed limit and making sure that you are wearing a seatbelt. These things are put in place to keep us safe, if someone had not been wearing a seatbelt when he hit it could have been much worse, because he was going well over the speed limit at the time on an already fast pace road. Secondly make sure that you are fully focused on the road while driving even the smallest loss of focus can cause an accident. If the other driver had been focused he would have been correctly in his lane and would not have hit my vehicle off to the side, the small error in his driving caused him to hit two other cars on the road, it made all the difference.

Lastly, what step can you take to be a better and safer driver as well as help others become safer on the road? It makes all the difference if everyone who is on the road is trying to do there best to make a difference in making the road safer to drive on, so it’s important in drivers education that we are teaching and helping student to understand what steps we can all take to make the be safer drivers and help others be seater as well. Like mentioned previously in this is essay drivers education makes all the difference is helping the roads be safer, as well as preventing distracted driving, those are the main two points that make a difference on the road. A few other things that can be mentioned are being a watchful and helpful passenger when others are driving in encouraging them to drive safe not distracting them and encouraging and assisting them if they are doing things that will distract them while they are driving. We also make sure that we are on top of ensuring that we are going to be focused on driving, for example not eating food or texting while driving, choose to do those things before or after you start driving, it makes a difference if you choose to wait rather then get distracted while you are driving, so many accidents are caused by just simply feeling that your distraction isn’t going to make a difference, but it does make a difference, show that you care for others around you by choosing to not interact with distractions while you are driving.

In conclusion the road can be a dangerous place, but it doesn’t have to be. We can all make an effort to make the road a safer place. We can do that by using drivers education programs to help us learn and be prepared to drive when we first get behind the wheel. We can make an effort to limit distraction on the road and do our best to take steps to make the road safer by helping others limit their distraction while driving. Let us all make the road a safer place one car at a time, showing that we will not drive distracted and that we will prevent driving-related injuries and death the best that we can.