Empowerment Behind the Wheel: The Impact of Driver’s Education on Responsible Choices

I must admit that my eyes glossed over when reading the line, ‘Driver’s education imparts essential knowledge about traffic laws, road safety, and responsible driving behaviors.’ But then, this driver’s education app tried to maintain my interest through games, fill-in-the-blanks, scenarios, and humor. With guilt, I realized that in reality, it shouldn’t be these gimmicky elements keeping my interest. The sheer ramifications of not learning these skills mean the difference between an accident and a smooth ride, even between life and death. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that in 2019, there were approximately 36,096 fatalities in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. Alarmingly, 2,820 fatal crashes in 2019 involved teen drivers aged 15-20 (1). I believe that many of these tragedies could have been prevented if the recommendations of driver’s education had been followed.

All the messages from my driver’s education rushed back to me when I sat behind the wheel for the first time, handling a vehicle with my mom sitting next to me. She continued my driver’s education with many memorable statements such as “Safety first, always. A safe journey is a successful one”, “Buckle up, every trip, every time”, “Keep your eyes on the road, not on your phone”, “Always signal your intentions; mind-reading is not a traffic skill”. The combination of the formal driver’s education and my mom’s experience gave me the confidence to inch out of the driveway and practice defensive driving, understand traffic laws, know the right-of-way, drive in adverse weather, handle night-time driving, and drive without distractions.

I am proud to say that I didn’t have any accidents on that first outing! However, I could tell that as I got more comfortable behind the wheel, I became a little more cavalier about the rules, as evidenced by me glancing at my phone when it buzzed. My mom noticed it too. So, she had me pull over to the curb, leaned in close, and at eye level, she slowly and deliberately said, ‘You are never a victim of your environment because you always have a choice.’ Behind those deep eyes, I could see her recollecting the tragedy that befell her distant 5-year-old cousin, who died in a crash involving a drunk driver. If that driver had chosen not to drink and drive, her cousin would still be alive.

I also have a personal memory of feeling unsafe as a passenger in a car driven by an older relative under the influence of alcohol. The message ‘Never drink and drive’ echoed in my ears as I sat nervously in the back seat. I was acutely aware of why drinking and driving was such a bad idea, not only from my mom’s stories but also from my own independent research, which involved publicly available EEG data of alcoholics and controls (2).

My research revealed a startling revelation: alcoholic brains struggle to process visual stimuli and encode this information within just 50-100 milliseconds following a visual stimulus. (My research paper is pending publication in the Journal of Student Research.) This finding has significant implications because driving is primarily a visual activity where milliseconds count, potentially making the difference between life and death.

What is even more concerning is that past research on alcoholism has uncovered a biomarker in EEG data that indicates deficits in theta and delta frequency band processing following visual and auditory stimuli in teenagers who come from families with a history of alcoholism (3). This deficit occurs even before they have ever tasted alcohol, suggesting that the brains they were born with predispose them to alcohol use disorder. This finding hit close to home, as I come from a lineage of alcoholics. I felt as if I were doomed to repeat the mistakes of my elders.

However, this moment in my mom’s driver’s education reminded me that I am never a victim of my environment or my genes. I am empowered not to put that drink in my mouth. I am empowered to choose to not look at my ringing phone while driving. I am empowered to choose to buckle up before starting the engine. I am empowered to choose to survey all my mirrors and blind spots while driving. I am empowered to choose patience when someone cuts me off. You are never a victim of your environment because you always have a choice. This has become a mantra that helps me realize that it doesn’t matter where I come from, what my past is, my ancestry, nationality, socioeconomic status, or what my friends are doing in the car, or how other drivers are behaving. When I am behind the wheel, I am the driver of my own choices.

In this way, driver’s education has shown me that I have agency in my decisions, and it is ultimately up to me to make responsible choices using all the information driver’s education has provided.

I believe this is one way we can improve driver’s education for teens like me. Our age group often feels vulnerable to our surroundings, leading to a tendency to blame social media, our parents, our grandparents, the school, the teachers, and our peers. Despite our inclination to place blame, deep down, we yearn to hear that we are in control of our actions, despite all the external influences. If driver’s education can address that need, we would be more inclined to learn about how we can have a positive impact on the road from point A to point B. In this context, attention to detail and mundane information is crucial for making informed, smart choices. Driver’s education can provide that essential information to make a positive impact on the road.

So, I conclude with intensity, enthusiasm, and purpose, that “Driver’s education imparts essential knowledge about traffic laws, road safety, and responsible driving behaviors.”

References:

1. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2020, December 18). NHTSA Releases 2019 Crash Fatality Data. NHTSA. https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-releases-2019-crash-fatality-data
   

2. Begleiter,Henri. (1999). EEG Database. UCI Machine Learning Repository. https://doi.org/10.24432/C5TS3D.
   

3. Rangaswamy, M., Jones, K. A., Porjesz, B., Chorlian, D. B., Padmanabhapillai, A., Kamarajan, C., Kuperman, S., Rohrbaugh, J., O’Connor, S. J., Bauer, L. O., Schuckit, M. A., & Begleiter, H. (2007). Delta and theta oscillations as risk markers in adolescent offspring of alcoholics. International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 63(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2006.10.003