Driving Can Be Scary

It’s nearing midnight and the wind is howling. You hear a rustle in
the woods nearby and you rush to your car so you can hurry away from
whatever that was. You breathe a sigh of relief…you’ve
escaped that creepy forest, and now you can cruise by under the
streetlights all the way home on empty roads- but that doesn’t stop
you from glancing back at the forest as you go. Jamming to Circles
on the radio, you’re about to take a u-turn when you see something
out of the corner of your eye that makes your whole body freeze.

The car that came swerving at you, 20 miles above speed limit didn’t
even honk as it shot past you, narrowly avoiding a potentially fatal
collision.

The scariest things waiting in the dark for a young driver are more
often than not, other drivers. And even scarier are the decisions
that young drivers have to make at those split-second crossroads
between life and death. The number one reason young drivers get in
accidents is because they don’t have the experience to consistently
recognize that danger and make the correct decisions in response.

But, as a 17 year old driver, hearing that “inexperience” is the
leading cause of teen crashes can be discouraging. After all, how can
a driver gain the proper “experience” to make the best decisions
in the minutes before they shift their car to “drive”?

Inexperience in a young driver can be broken down into a few key
mistakes: lack of scanning on the roadway, driving too fast for the
road conditions, and being distracted by something inside or outside
of the window.

These are all habits that a young driver must grow out of. Part of
the solution is to, as many states do, continually stress the
importance of putting the phone away, the importance of travelling
with as few passengers as possible, especially other teens, the
importance of being rested before getting behind the wheel, and the
importance of encouraging parents to provide their young drivers the
proper lessons on the road while in training. These are the steps
that every young driver and their families must keep at the forefront
of their mind’s because they are critical towards reducing driving
fatalities.

But frankly, much more can be done to keep a young driver safe from
the moment they begin their drivers ed, rather than
advertising safety after they’ve already hit the road. After all- a
driver can’t gain the proper experience to make the best
decisions in the minutes before they shift their car to drive.

To make this progress, drivers ed must evolve into
guidance that’s more comprehensive than heart-rending videos,
lectures, and multiple choice bubbles. In place of the usual
regurgitation of facts and figures about young drivers on the road,
drivers ed must take a more student-centric approach that
recognizes each young driver as an individual, with their own
predispositions and potential.

Students need to be given more time on the road with professional
driving instructors in order to form the habits of an experienced
driver and to recognize their own driving strengths and weaknesses.
Furthermore, students need to be given the opportunities in their
classes, through on-road time, and conversational, simulation, and
video walk-throughs with input from instructors to navigate through
the decision making thought process themselves. Improving off of your
own mistakes is a much better way to learn than hearing about someone
else’s mistakes.

Experience is not something any young driver or parent should have to
wait on. It can be built bit by bit from the student, parent, and
instructor from the moment a teenager decides they want to drive.
Driving, can be scary, and for good reason, but with the
proper education, a young driver can make the excellent decisions
that will save lives.

Source for more
information:
https://www.nsc.org/driveithome/teen-driver-risks/inexperience