Education Saves Lives on the Road

For two years I have commuted to my local community college, and for the past six months I have commuted to my job. Both commutes entail half an hour or more of highway time, to be specific the notoriously dangerous Route 78 through the Lehigh Valley. I can recall being a meek 16 year old and asking myself “how bad can it be?” regarding driving. As I’ve learned in my short tenure as a driver, I have realized just how bad and lethal the roads can be. During my two commutes, I often question how some people manage to keep their license based on their performance on the road. Although I have only been a licensed driver for so long, I have come to believe that the various issues I see on the road are due to a lack of proper driver’s education.

I am blessed enough to have received drivers’ education. My high school required a semester’s worth of drivers’ education, which could optionally be accompanied by on the road driving lessons with various faculty members. Most students, including myself, opted to join the on the road program for the extremely valuable experience. These driving lessons, accompanied by the classroom time, made it extremely clear that driving was not a safe task, something which I believe is critical for young drivers to understand.

The majority of classroom time was spent covering the dangers of the road. Specifically, there was a time where our school’s designated police officer spent an entire class period describing personal experiences of deaths he had reported on during his time as an officer. Although I will not go into detail about the stories he told, it’s safe to say that even four years later I can vividly remember that day in the classroom. Personal accounts make a much greater impact than blurbs from a reading or generic videos. Drivers, especially young kids, must understand the lethality of driving. My class frequently brought up this idea of driving mortality, even mentioning the death rate compared to the wars mentioned in this scholarship’s description.

The lessons of the classroom coupled with the lessons from the police officer have taught me that the “it will never happen to me” mindset is not true, and that driving a car is an actively dangerous situation where anything can happen. By expressing the number of deaths through driving with powerful examples, I believe drivers will be much more obliged to drive safely. I also believe that one of the key steps in reducing deaths on the road is to fund public education to learn about driving. As it did for me, the personal accounts and hands-on methods of the classroom can provide infinitely valuable knowledge. Sadly, within the past year I learned that my high school alma mater tried to completely abolish the drivers’ education program due to the cost. Considering the real-life implications of a drivers’ education program, and not to mention the taxes we pay to fund public schooling, I believe that all public school districts should be able to provide some sort of drivers’ education. Although it would require a comprehensive study, I believe it would be interesting to see the differences in driver experiences from high schools who provided drivers’ education to those who did not.

While the classroom provides formal drivers’ education, I believe we also owe it to our fellow drivers to educate each other, as well as our parents and guardians. I feel too often that driving is not considered a formal topic of discussion, and many people see it as a simple aspect of everyday life that is not dangerous. The truth is that if we engage in critical discussions about driving safely amongst our peers and guardians, we will remind ourselves that instances of unsafe driving are not worth the potential consequences. In my personal life, my parents adequately taught me about how to be a safe driver. I push that same information onto my younger brothers, one of which who just received his license three months ago. This kind of personal education compounds with formal education to create a safe mindset that is aware of the potential dangers on the road.

To keep myself safe, I remind myself how dangerous the roads can be, especially on instances like my commute to work or school. I keep my hands away from my phone and constantly remind myself to give proper distance to the car in front of me. In situations where I am in unfamiliar territory, I drive slowly and pay attention to the environment around me. That point is especially critical when driving at night, a time where a person walking or a wandering animal can prove to be a lethal obstacle. At the end of the day, I credit these anecdotes to the education I received.

Although I have not been in any life altering car crashes, I have been in cars with people who tend to drive irresponsibly. The biggest violation I have seen is texting while driving, something which I have seen happening in other cars on the road as well. In a recent instance, the driver minivan in front of me on the highway had a visible phone stand, which was being used to prop the phone for the purpose of scrolling social media, rather than the use of a map. While something as egregious as that example has not happened to me while I was in the vehicle, I always try to remind my friends to pay attention to the road if they drift toward their cellphone.

All in all, I believe that education, both formal and personal, is the key to keeping drivers aware about deaths on the road. Most drivers most likely never had the education to show them how dangerous driving can be, which can account for why so many people die on the road each day. Aside from formal education, personal anecdotes for safety can remind us that anything can happen, and we should all be better off safe than sorry. I firmly believe that the varying forms of educating drivers can ultimately save lives on the road.