The Importance of Driver’s Education

We are exposed to unsafe driving through personal experiences, video games and social media. That is why it is important for us to learn safe driving through driver’s education.

Driver’s education teaches us the importance of being responsible and safe drivers. We are taught how to properly operate a vehicle and the system of transportation. The system includes: speed, street lights, traffic, how to properly make room for emergency vehicles that are oncoming, three point turns, parallel parking and many more. If there was not a driver’s education program, the death rates from car accidents would be at a much higher count than it is currently.

When you first think about driving you may be excited and nervous to learn how to operate a vehicle. It is important to know that receiving a driver’s education needs to be taken seriously. Which is the first step to becoming a safe driver. After receiving your driver’s license, get to know the car that you will be driving. Taking the time to understand how to operate your vehicle minimizes complications leading to accidents while you are on the road. Being aware of your surroundings keeps you and other drivers safe. If you see something unusual, call for help. If someone is driving recklessly it is a potential risk of an accident. Although technology has increased the safety of driving, it has also increased distractions that have caused multiple accidents leading to deaths. Such as texting while driving, drinking and driving, drowsy driving, and speeding. Drinking and driving can lead to a traumatic death which affects you, the family of the victim, and any one else involved. It puts you at risk of spending the rest of your life in prison with guilt for potentially killing someone on the road. Speeding may cause you to lose control of your vehicle, and potentially causing a car accident leading to death. Texting and drowsy driving leads to not being aware of your surroundings which can cause an accident as well. Your texts can wait but your life can’t. Pull over to sleep if you can not stay awake behind the wheel. Losing your life or taking away someone else’s life is not worth the risk.

One late summer night my husband and I were driving to California. We had just stopped to get gas. After we had filled the tank we were coming over an overpass towards the highway. Where we noticed another car was coming towards us in our lane. With only a few seconds to make a decision to try to avoid a head-on collision, my husband decided to swerve away from the oncoming vehicle at the last second. As we swerved the other driver ended up side swiping our truck totaling both of our vehicles. If my husband hadn’t swerved at the last second we would have crashed head-on and would’ve resulted in all three of us losing our lives. Shortly after the crash we were notified that the other driver was drowsy and had fallen asleep while driving. The other driver had made an irresponsible decision by driving while being impaired. Making a conscious decision about your ability to drive is a step to arriving at your destination safely.

Putting yourself in any careless situation will change the rest of your life as well as the people involved. Each person that takes the time to take a drivers education course decreases the percentage of deaths while driving. If you are wanting to go out with friends for dinner and may want to drink, you should not get behind the wheel. Call an uber, have a sober friend drive home, or take another safe way of transportation that will not put your life at risk. If you have an important text or notification on your phone that you need to answer, pull over before looking at your phone. Take the time to make smart decisions before getting behind the wheel.

We should not hesitate to educate our friends and family that are thinking of making an irresponsible decision while driving. Encourage them to pull over if they have a text they are needing to answer. Do not hesitate to take the keys away from a loved one that is intoxicated. Avoiding distractions to be more aware of our surroundings will help avoid a car accident. Everyone will be grateful at the end of the day. Knowing that they did not put themselves and others at risk. Stand tall and be the person that helps decrease the number of deaths while driving.