Paving the way for Emotional intelligence

Driver Education Initiative Award – Paving the way for Emotional intelligence

As Gen-Z comes up, driving is continually deemed as a cool thing when you are between the age of 14-18. If you can drive and have a car, you are successful as a teenager, no need to worry about anything else. But the thing that all young people do not take into consideration is that driving is one of the most dangerous things you can do in your day-to-day life. Most people believe after you get your license, you are a professional driver. They can even start auditioning for these rogue car commercials. They are unaware of the proper process to follow due to a lack of extensive drivers Education.

Driver education is very much needed currently. These days a few people take the time to take a driver’s course before driving. Many Gen-Z and millennials are nonchalant to the fact that taking these courses will help in preventing several accidents. Most drivers do not know how to drive defensively or drive at the proper speed on the highway, which affects other drivers on the road leading to road rage and unnecessary traffic. According to the NHTSA decision errors and performance errors caused by drivers lead to 44% of accidents and crashes. Decision errors comprise of false assumptions of other vehicles or illegal maneuvers without knowing, all because they failed to fully immerse themselves into a defensive driving course.

To be honest, I never took a defensive driving course until I got tickets every month. I never knew that I parked illegally most times and I almost hit a police car because of a decision error; I maneuvered illegally and almost had a fatal accident with a police officer. This made me realize that it was about time for me to put driving on the back burner and take a defensive driving course. The course was for a week, which I dreaded, but after the course though, I tackled driving like I was in a Fast and furious movie that included safety driving with my parents.

Let’s Talk. My first real encounter with a police officer was when I decided to make a recognition error which is the cause of 41% of accidents and fatal crashes in the United States. I got distracted by my phone. I got a text from the boy I liked after 2 weeks of texting him, he finally texted me back while I was driving. Obliviously, I did what any other Gen- Z will do, which was quickly text him back. To me, it was an emergency. I had to text Kato back immediately before I missed my window of opportunity and teleported to a time where I was waiting for his text. I picked up my phone and was trying to text “What’s up” after he just texted “Hi.” I know, what a serious emergency for me. I was swerving on the highway, but I did not care, I continued to try to text “what’s up.” Even though my iPhone kept auto-correcting to “WhatsApp.” People were honking, screaming, and passing me by, then I hear the “wee-oow wee-oow”, a police siren. I pulled over and he gave me a ticket I had to eventually pay $250 for.

The first step I have taken and will continue to take to become a better and safer driver on the road is to continually take a driver’s education course once every year. I also believe being aware of our emotional state is especially important to reduce road rage. Emotional intelligence plays a huge part in driving. Having the ability to understand why you are incredibly angry at the next driver for not driving the speed limit or passing through an orange light is important. As you realize that; it is not worth it to come out of your car in the middle of the road or to start something while driving because the person did not do what you wanted. That is the first step in preventing any more accidents. Also having the emotional ability to realize that you are not such a good driver because you may have had many tickets.

There are other steps to take towards becoming a safer driver such as downloading the following apps: AT&T’s Drive Mode, DriveSafe.ly, Sprint’s Drive First, Sprint’s Safely Go. These apps stop notifications and limit you to only access the GPS while driving. I believe we should all be responsible for ourselves and others. Like my boyfriend always says “Drive for others and not yourself.”

References

https://www.defensivedriving.org/dmv-handbook/defensive-driving-facts/