No More Sad Highway Signs

Looking at the news each day, you will see many deadly car accidents. Whether it would be the morning news or night news, if there is a car accident mentioned, you will see a horrific car accident. Each year thousands of people die from car accidents. Just looking down the highway you will see many signs saying X marks the spot, think, drive safe. These signs are put up to show people that people have died in that spot from car accidents. It is sad seeing those signs down the highway, but it is sad to see more than one sign in the same spot. Those multiple signs in that one spot state that more than one person has died in that spot. Driver’s education can help people make better decisions on the road and help students learn the importance of good driving.

Driver’s education can help students learn the importance of good driving, which will help reduce the numbers of deaths while driving. Living in the state of South Dakota, teenagers had two opinions on how to receive their license. The first option was to take a permit test down at the DMV, then take a driving test with a driving instructor or cop. If a person passed both, they would earn their learner’s permit. The second option is to take drivers ed. The class duration could be anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks, depending on when the class was scheduled in the year. After passing the class, a person would have to take driving lessons with an instructor for 6 hours, and then would have to take a test to see if they were able to drive. Even though many students would learn more by taking drivers ed, many people took the quickest route, option one. Going through my school and looking at the people that did not take drivers ed, many more of those people get into accidents. Without them taking drivers ed, they drive more recklessly, resulting in more car accidents. If more people took drivers ed, less students my age would be getting into car accidents, and less people would be driving recklessly. With less people driving recklessly, and less people getting into serious car accidents, less people would be dying in car accidents.

Growing up, many of my friends were getting drivers licenses. To this day I can see many of them getting into trouble with the law about reckless driving. Last year, I witnessed one of my classmates getting into a high speed chase. The part of the chase that I saw was about a mile long. In that mile of stretch that I could see the chase, there was a stop sign in place. Around the time that the chase was taking place, the stop sign was known to always have people at it. While I was watching everything unfold, all I could think about was the stop sign that the person kept coming back to. I was worried every time that the car was going to hit another. Since they were going fast enough, someone, either in the speeder’s car or another, could have gotten seriously injured. Knowing the person who was involved in the high speed chase, I know that they were not the type of person to take drivers ed, and if I am being completely honest, I could see them driving illegally if they didn’t have their license. We need to force people to take driver education for the safety of them and others. Enforcing people to take the class and lessons, and enforcing a certain grade or percent they have to get to be able to get their license will reduce the amount of unsafe drivers on the road.

Even though driver education should be a necessary thing that people should have to go through, many people also need to preach the good things about driving safely. Others, along with me, should go around and make sure that everyone is driving safely. If someone knows someone or sees them driving unsafely, they should point it out to the person. Even though death is not always a good topic, it is always a possibility. Even if it is something someone might consider being a minor offense to unsafe driving, someone could get seriously hurt. Going around a high school, you can hear many people talking about their unsafe driving habits. In school, many guest speakers come in and talk about their experiences. Many times people that have survived serious car accidents come in to talk about their experience. Several students can be heard making fun of the speaker in the audience. But one thing that every speaker says that I think everyone should preach is, “Even looking away for one second can be the time where you or someone else can get seriously injured.” If everyone were to know that one second could change their lives, many people would not be driving the way that they are today.

Driver’s education can help positively impact the number of deaths that we hear about each year due to reckless driving habits. Everyone should be taking driver education to make sure that they know the dangers of driving recklessly, and so they know what good and bad driving looks like. Even though many people are going to try to get out easily, people should set a standard of what other people have to meet in order for them to pass. People should also be spreading awareness of the deaths that families have to come back to each year. I no longer want to see signs on the side of the highway anymore that state that someone unfortunately passed away. People do not deserve to drive on the road, and one second could change someone’s life.