Driver Education Initiative – Safe Driving

Safe
Driving

According
to the National Safety Council, “In
2018, an estimated 40,000 people lost their lives to car crashes”.
Everyday, hundreds of people throughout America are affected by a
road accident. I
have had an experience in a car accident when I was only 9 years old.
I was in the backseat when we were coming up to a red light. The
driver of the vehicle I was in screamed in fear as the car tailing
behind us didn’t step on their breaks. Thankfully, this wreck
wasn’t awful and everyone was okay. It turned out that the driver
that rammed into us was drunk and out of their mind. Although the
wreck was caused by a driver being under the influence of alcohol,
this experience led me to the realization that being on the road can
be dangerous under many circumstances. For example, if a driver
doesn’t have much knowledge about road safety and precautions to
take when behind a steering wheel, it can lead to a car accident. One
way to help people learn the importance of driving safety is
spreading the word of drivers ed.

The
purpose of drivers ed is to provide young people with knowledge
and skills needed for road safety. For example, based on The
American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA),
one goal of drivers ed is, “…ensuring that novice drivers
are trained for practice driving and capable of entering the
restricted licensing process, through the use of a competency-based
training and assessment process.” Drivers ed helps prepare a
beginner driver in obtaining a learners permit or driver’s license.
Thanks to drivers ed, I gained knowledge on road safety (prior
to getting my license), that continues to stick with me every time I
drive.

The
steps we can all take to be a better and safer driver, as well as
help others become safer on the road, is by spreading our knowledge
about safe driving. As reported by the Virginia Tech Transportation
Institute in 2016, “Driver-related factors (i.e., error,
impairment, fatigue, and distraction) were present in almost 90% of
crashes”. Once everyone has more awareness over safe driving, the
number of crashes/deaths is likely to decrease per year. While you
can’t control many risks on the road, you can set yourself and
others up to be as safe as possible. For example, some things you can
do to lower the risks of a car accident is forgetting about your
cell-phone (studies by Department of Motor Vehicles has shown that
using a phone is the equivalent of drunk driving), keeping your car
in good shape, minimizing all distractions (such as drunk driving),
keeping two hands on the wheel at all times, going the speed limit
and keeping a safe distance between you and other vehicles. In
conclusion, based on many studies over the years about car accident
leading to fatalities, it is very important that we continue to
spread the word about the importance of road safety and driver
education.