Drivers Ed Initiative

Driver
Education Initiative

Ever since I was
little, I have had a passion for driving. When I was younger, I would
sit in my dad’s lap and steer the car down our street while he
controlled the gas pedal and brakes. Being behind the wheel felt so
natural to me, so when I turned fifteen, I was very eager to be out
on the road. However, I quickly learned that the open road is not
quite as simple as passing driveways and trying to avoid mailboxes.
My mother enrolled me in the Drivers ed program at my
school and I immediately learned so much about driving that I would
never have known without the program such as the amount of deaths
caused by distracted driving and useful driving techniques to prevent
distracted driving accidents. The fact that surprised me the most,
was that my county had the highest number of distracted driving
related crashes. This took me completely by surprise. Within the
class, we went in-depth to the reasons behind many of these crashes
and ways to prevent them. If more people took classes like this, just
understanding the depth of distracted driving would help to raise
awareness and potentially reduce the number of deaths caused by these
crashes. Simply spreading the word and educating drivers in a
constructive, structured, and interactive session will cause a huge
change in lowering the number of distracted driving crashes.

As young drivers, it
is very important to be exposed to this information early on and
maintaining its effectiveness. While I found the Drivers ed
class very helpful, my friends still drive distracted. I cannot count
the times I’ve been in the car with one of my friends and the music
is too loud or the driver is on his or her phone or other passengers
are distracting the driver. It is very risky and most of the time I
volunteer to drive, or I will often drive separately in hopes to
prevent my friends and I from becoming a statistic. In addition,
educating my friends about distracted driving will help them become
more aware of the risk each of them is taking when getting behind the
wheel. Furthermore, a higher investment into Drivers ed
programs both in school and within the community would create a
dramatic difference and help reduce the amount of distracted driving
crashes.