Name: Chloe Jane Ross
From: Clarksville, IA
Votes: 0
Driver
Education is one of the most important classes that I took throughout
high school. Yes, English and Math classes will help in the future,
but drivers ed is what keeps you alive. Without driver
education, I would know who gets the right away, what certain signs
mean, how to correctly use an emergency brake, and how to change my
tire. Just the other month my transmission went out and I knew
exactly what to do right away. I turned on my hazards and shifted
through the correct gears to pull over. If I would not have drivers
education, I would have just freaked out and, most likely, I would
have gotten hit and I could have died. Another reason that drivers
education helps reduce deaths is by teaching signs and stop lights,
these are mainly self-explanatory, but some people could ignore the
signs and drive into traffic if they were not taught correctly.
Some
precautions that can be taken to reduce driving-related deaths would
be to wait at a newly green light for three seconds to avoid the cars
that are trying to make it through the yellow light. This could help
prevent a lot of car accidents in the middle of an intersection that
turns into pile-ups. This could also help in the winter months when a
vehicle loses traction and cannot stop where there intended to. For
example, it was in the middle of January when my mother almost slid
through an intersection at a stoplight because she lost traction on
the ice. I was very nervous but we were lucky and caught traction at
the very last second. I would not say that my mother was driving
irresponsibly, but she was actually using what she learned in driver
education when her brakes locked up. I did not have my seatbelt on
for some unknown reason, but now it is always the first thing I do
when I get into a car.
Along
with putting my own seatbelt on, I always tell my passengers to put
their seatbelts on before I start driving. Another step that I could
take to be a better driver would be to never be on my phone while
driving. This is my biggest pet-peeve because I have seen so many
people swerving in their lane because they are on their phones.
Texting and driving is a huge problem with today’s generation. A
simple text is not worth one or more persons’ lives. Sending a text
or answering a phone call will never be that important. If a person
is waiting for an important phone call, they can pull over and answer
the phone. It is never worth putting a person’s life in danger
because of a pointless text. This is taught in drivers ed, but
I feel like it is not talked about enough. I once had a speaker come
into my high school and talk about his daughter that crashed because
of texting and driving. He told us this story right when I started
driving and I have not picked my phone up while driving since. His
story was very motivating and I will never forget it. I am glad that
he told me this story, and I think that adding this to a driver
education class would be an excellent addition to the class.
Driver
education is very important and every driver needs to know the rules
of driving. Driving is a very dangerous thing to you and everyone
around you, so we need to make sure we are being as safe as possible.
Drivers should know how to control themselves and their vehicles to
protect themselves and others. My biggest wish in the world would be
that texting and driving will end forever to prevent further
accidents and deaths.
