Driver Education and Safe Driving

Driver Education is a class that is required for all young teens to take before they are allowed on the road. During this course they are taught about road and traffic laws and also how to operate a vehicle safely. For you and your passengers’ safety but also for every other driver and pedestrian. Driver education is how inexperienced drivers are taught road safety. Driver education reduces the number of deaths resulting from driving accidents. You are taught proper speed limits, excelling and decelling, merging and exiting, how and where to stop in certain areas and instances, and using blinkers to warn other drivers of your intended actions. These are simple actions that are taught through driver education that ensure that everyone has the knowledge, and ability to drive safely. Safe drivers who are informed of these actions keep everyone safe. People who improperly carry out these actions are increasing their risks of harming themselves and others. During driver education, you become aware of the risks of unskilled or incorrect driving, and you become aware of how to execute actions safely without imposing a threat on other people around you. Drivers who do not know what they are doing are more susceptible to making fatal mistakes. People who are operating vehicles on the road together have all undergone driver education so they are made aware of how to safely operate which results in fewer fatal mistakes made by people who are uninformed.

Every year there is a large number of fatalities resulting from driving-related accidents. In order to reduce these numbers people need to drive more defensively and become aware of their surroundings. Staying focused and removing as many distractions as possible including phones, loud noises, and other distractions held in your hands. Obeying all signs and traffic laws including speed limits, stop signs, yield signs, and other signs where you and another vehicle have to have a mutual understanding of how to continue. Wearing a seatbelt and ensuring your vehicle is safe and up to standards is a simple yet overlooked way to ensure your safety and also a way to prevent a vehicle malfunction. Informed driving is safe driving, being taught proper ways to carry out all these tasks can greatly reduce the amount of fatalities. Driver education is key to creating safe and informed drivers.

I have never experienced being in a car accident, but I have come close to an accident. It was one day in winter and my two younger siblings and I were driving to school and two days previously I had gotten stuck in the snow and my dad pulled my car out and while doing that he bent the tie rod and we did not know. My car had kind of been driving funny but I assumed it was the snow on the road. We started going down a hill and my car started going down the hill sideways and backward we turned a full circle around and the back of my car grazed the snow bank on the side of the road. Luckily no one was coming behind me or oncoming traffic. I remained calm and managed to slow the car down and keep me and my siblings safe. We were shaken up but we did not get hurt.

I have seen my friends and family driving irresponsibly. Oftentimes this is just the fact of distracted driving like being on their phone and not paying attention. There was a time when my friends and I were driving and we were in two different cars at the time and they began racing each other and driving in the wrong lane. They did not see anything wrong with the situation but I found it unsafe. I feel like this is a common occurrence among teens where they are being unsafe for purely entertainment purposes and they do not see the dangers and possible unknowns or unsafe driving.

I can become a better and safer driver by limiting my distractions like my phone and loud music. I have also come across a few instances where I am driving and come across situations where I get confused like four-way stop signs and roundabouts. I feel like this is a common occurrence for people. I can become more informed on the correct ways to handle these situations which will keep myself safer as well as keeping other drivers around me safe. I think ensuring that people are up to date and new possible laws and regulations is a way to keep others safe as well.