24

The Importance of Drivers Education

Driver education was first introduced by Amos Neyhart in 1934 as an act to make driving safer. This education was first pushed towards college aged drivers, but quickly spread to younger. Though this was released nearly 50 years after the first invention of the car, drivers education successfully educated the public how to safely maneuver a car. Before this education opportunity, many deaths were caused to innocent people on the streets who weren’t even driving. The release made both pedestrians and drivers safer. Many people didn’t know the features of these rapidly upgrading cars along with the road laws either.The lack of education in driving caused deaths in itself because most were unaware of how to react when situations get tense. A good example of how driving used to be is shown in the movie The Great Gatsby. Reckless driving was common in the movie, where they were all driving at top speeds while swerving through the traffic nearly hitting each other. Most of the drivers were also drunk because they were coming home from parties. The most tragic part was one of the main characters running out and getting hit by an inexperienced woman driver. This movie, of course, was filmed in the present day but the time period was the early 20s’. Luckily, thanks to programs like drivers education, we don’t have any inexperienced drivers on the road.

Driver education offers more than just learning to drive to the public. It also teaches about laws and regulations tied to the roads. Only 26 states require this course to teens under 18 who are beginning to drive. I do feel it needs to be required more often than not, especially to new drivers. Even though teens are more likely to get in a crash, I believe everyone no matter the age should get some kind of education before starting to drive. And to be honest, we are all getting too comfortable with the act of driving and forget about the dangers it can have. Many teens in my school have passed away due to reckless driving or not paying enough attention. Some examples of what these teens did were attempting to pass a car with a solid double line and speeding at high speeds only to lose control and crash. Plus a majority of drivers (especially young-middle age adults) have some sort of distraction while driving. Texting and driving is one of the main distractions on the road while drinking while driving, or driving while drunk, comes to a close second. A majority of accidents around me are from drunk drivers either running off the road, or hitting other innocent cars. Another common factor of accidents is uncontrollable events, such as animals running into the road or black ice. I personally never have gotten into an accident, but once spun out with black ice. My mom was driving then and was paying full attention, it was just a matter of an uncontrollable event. Since we were both buckled and she was giving her full attention, we were able to drive away after.

So what can we take away from these education classes to be safer on the road? Well first off, we should always remember to buckle up and put our phones down. Even a quick glance at your phone increases your chances of crashing by up to 23 times. It is a form of distracted driving that doesn’t allow your full reaction to any uncontrollable event. We also can remind friends and family to do the same when we notice they are not. Next we should be aware of anything that could happen. Sometimes our cars will give out without a warning, such as tire popping or sudden engine failure. We need to have a plan for if this event were to happen to ourselves or someone else on the road. Reaction is everything when driving, which is why it requires our full attention. Finally we should of course follow the laws of the road. Speed limits, solid double lines, and stop signs are all posted for a reason due to past crashes or just common sense. Another law that is often looked over is to drive sober to save yourself and others. Most bad accidents are caused by non-sober drivers who are either drunk or high. In terms of our safety, we should do everything we can to save at least one life from driving. So be smart and pay attention to what driving instructors teach you.