Lightning McQueen can’t teach you how to drive and neither can Mario Kart.

We’ve all seen the Cars movies and wonder if we could drive like them. I was one of those people too. We also used to believe that if we could master Mario Kart, then we could master the road right? Sadly, that’s not true for driving in the real world. Driving in the real world is nothing compared to what you see in movie stunts or video games. Driving in the real world takes a lot of responsibility on your part and a lot of focus to prevent the preventable. Driving also requires people to know the rules of the road and make sure they are physically, mentally, and emotionally capable to drive. Mario or Luigi cannot help you learn how to drive and neither can Lightning Mcqueen or Tow Mater, but experience and driver’s education can.

Driver’s education is a program to help new drivers learn about what driving is like in the real world. Driver’s education also provides a source for those new drivers to learn the rules of the road. Driver’s education has been scientifically proven to help new drivers prevent the deaths of innocent people on the road and also help them learn how to properly drive on the road.

One of the first things to do to drive safely and prevent accidents and deaths on the road is to always check your surroundings. Many people are hit because the driver was distracted by something and that led to the accident. Drivers should know that pedestrians should always have the right of way. Driver’s education helps new drivers learn that pedestrians have the right of way and that the driver must always be attentive to their surroundings while driving on the road. Reckless driving also causes 33% of all deaths involving major car accidents, which are more than 13,000 deaths each year. Many drivers tend to speed and hit someone because of their recklessness. Imagine you are just having a good time hanging out with your friends. You guys are just walking and a car comes out of nowhere and almost hits you guys. How would you feel? You would probably feel upset and think that that driver is irresponsible and does not know how to drive.

The second thing you can do is never and I mean never drive under the influence. Many people are killed from hit and runs by drivers under the influence. An alcohol-related death occurs every 52 minutes according to the NHTSA. DUIs cause more than about 10,000 deaths per year, which is also about one-third of all traffic related deaths. In this past year, over 230 children were killed from drivers that were under the influence. Whether you get high on marijuana or any other drug or drink alcohol, your choices can lead to something you could have prevented by not driving under the influence. You may think that you are sober enough to drive home because you are not that far from home, but that choice can lead to the death of an innocent adult, teen, or even child.

I was in a car crash a few years ago and it was really scary because as a child, you don’t expect that to happen to you. My mom’s ex boyfriend was driving at the time when a lady decided to make a fast turn right as we were too close to her. The crash was minor, but personally traumatized me because it was my first car accident ever. The lady apologized and said she believed we slowed down just for her, but that’s irresponsibility on her part because she should have known that we have the right of way. The lady should have known that she didn’t have the right away because she was turning left while we were going straight forward. It was hard for me to recover from that and I honestly did not think I would recover and I also believed that I would not be able to drive because of how paranoid I became after that accident. I overcame my fear and put myself out there once again.

I took my driver’s education class and passed with a 93%. I was so glad I took driver’s education because it helped me learn that everything you see on the road is not right. You should always know the rules of the road before you begin driving. The more good choices you make while driving, the more lives of innocent people will be saved in the future.