Positive Reinforcement for Positive Results

It is no secret that car accidents are not only common, but extremely dangerous and scary. One wrong move on the road could cost you your life. The National Safety Council reported over 46,000 car accident related deaths in 2022. Unfortunatley, teenagers beginning to drive do not always understand the risks of driving when they begin to regularly get behind the wheel. Many teenagers who only understand how to drive but not rules of the road and how dangerous driving can be are extremely reckless and cause many fatal accidents. This is why the fatal crash rate for teenagers is nearly 3 times higher than any other group.

An easy way to prevent teenage driver incomptence is by mandating driver’s education courses on a federal level. In South Carolina, where I live, all teenagers are required to take an 8 hour classroom driver’s education course before taking 6 hours of behind the wheel instruction time with a trained driving instructor on top of the 40 hours of required on-your-own driving practice with a licensed adult. While learning to drive will always come with some challenges and accidents, requiring teens to learn to drive with a trained instructor will create better drivers and cause less crashes for those learning to drive. These courses are currently available through private businesses as well as through many public high schools, and I feel they do help teenagers in South Carolina become safer drivers because they understand the risks and rules that come with the responsibility of driving a car. If put into federal legislation, the scope of these courses will be more regulated and expanded further to ensure all teenagers have the ability to access lessons and the ability to get a license.

Another way we can reduce the number of car related deaths is by increasing driver’s education beyond the teenage years. Everyone should be required to retake their driver’s test (both the written and skills-based portion) every ten years, and if they fail, they must take additional driver’s education classes before taking the test again. This will ensure that the elderly still have enough mental capacity to keep driving. This will also create helpful reminders for those who have been driving for decades but may be getting a little too relaxed with the rules of the roads because of their comfort behind the wheel. Hypothetically, if someone has been driving for 40 years and passed their driving test 4 times, the fifth time they take the test they should pass, but if throughout that time they developed unsafe driving habits and fail the test, taking an additional driver’s education class as a refresher course would be beneficial to the safety of those using the roads.

Furthermore, when people come to the DMV to renew their drivers test and license, if they have not gotten a ticket or a car crash in the past ten years, or since their last test, they will be eligible for a tax break because of their safe driving. People hate nothing more than taxes, and people love nothing more than money, and this makes money the perfect motivator for safe driving habits. People will be incentivized to follow safety laws so they can ultimately save money and get away with not paying their taxes. Furthermore, this will incentivise people to use the roads in a safe way, and people will therefore use more gas, which will boost the economy and therefore the taxes from gas can be pumped into each state’s Department of Transportation which will make roads safer and the Department of Motor Vehicles a happier place to be.

Driving safety is a very personal issue to me because my grandmother was killed in a head-on collision, and therefore I never got to meet her. I hear she was an incredible woman, and the effects her death had on my mother were so terrible. Her death had negative effects on the mental health and well being of my family, and I am extremely passionate about others not having to experience the pain and heartache my family had to go through. Therefore, my family has set many rules and boundaries to hold each other accountable for safe driving and encourage safe driving habits. First off, we plan for more than enough time to get to our destination. By doing this, we can plan to get to our destination on time without feeling the need to speed excessivley, blow through stop signs, or run red or yellow lights. We also make sure to update each other on where exactly we are going so that we can advise each other to avoid certain roads that tend to be unsafe due to the condition of the road or other drivers that typically use that road. Growing up, I also watched my parents practice safe driving habits, such as letting other people into a line of cars, and not being unsafe through the use of road rage. Leading by example is so important in all aspects of life and I am beyond grateful that my parents set the precedent of safety from a young age.

Through implementing these habits into your life and beginning to petition to enact incentives for increased driver’s education and incentivization of safe driving, we can together create a safer future for not only all drivers, but all Americans.