Safety First

Isabella
Done

Safety
First

The
first and only time I was in a car accident I was with my Mom driving
around Ireland. We hit the Wild Atlantic Way on the West Coast just
as everyone in the country was heading to the horse races in Galway.
My Mom is a responsible driver, but in the midst of the traffic and
confusion someone rear ended us. Though the accident was small and
caused little damage to the rental car, the shock was enough to upset
my entire day. I was scared since we were in a foreign country, but
my Mom had bought comprehensive insurance on the rental car, we were
driving on the opposite side of the road after all, so all went
fairly smoothly.

It’s surprising
that this small incident has been my only car accident, after all the
U.S. alone averages 6 million car accidents per year. Motor vehicle
accidents are the leading cause of death for teens! So how do we
reduce this? Education! Analysis conducted by AAA in the 2014
timeframe showed that comprehensive Drivers ed reduced car
accidents for teens by 4.3% and reduced traffic tickets by 40%!

Driver’s
education provides younger drivers, new drivers, and drivers who need
a refresher, with the knowledge and skills they need to safely
operate a motor vehicle. Safely is the key term in this sentence.
Sure, it’s not that hard to turn on a car and drive it around, but
do you know how to properly adjust your mirrors to reduce your blind
spots? Do you know which way to turn your wheel if you’re skidding
on ice? Do you know how long it takes your vehicle to safely stop and
what a safe following distance is for you to manage that? Teens also
need to be taught how to avoid risky situations in addition to the
technical skills necessary to get out of them.

So how do we improve on drivers ed to continue to reduce
traffic accidents and deaths? First of all, I think we need to focus
on those areas where studies show there are skill lapses in drivers.
Second, simulators are a really good idea. In a simulator, drivers
could be faced with a myriad of different risky situations, without
real risk, allowing them to practice critical defensive driving
skills that they hopefully never have to use in real life. Third, a
focus on avoiding risky situations in the first place is still
necessary. Fourth, the ability to focus on an individual driver’s
strengths and weaknesses and scale the training to what they need to
improve would significantly improve the results of Driver’s
Education at the individual level.