Drivers Safety Regulations

Hello, my name is Ethan Jones. I am a 17 year old High School senior who has just celebrated my 1 year anniversary of being a licensed driver in the state of Arizona. I love my Dodge pickup truck. This truck was my fathers and he passed it on to me and I really enjoy the roadway driving experience.

I know the importance of driver safety just merely by the simple fact that a loss of life that occurs from a vehicle on a roadway is not Ok and unacceptable, especially when most occurrences are due to the actions, choices and behaviors of the driver and/or passenger(s).

My driving journey has been awesome. My first experience driving was when I was 15 when my parents drove me to the empty parking lot of my elementary school every single weekend for 3 months straight. Even when I did not want to go, they made me. After I got my permit, I started driving school and received my certificate of completion. Beside my in-car instruction, I also attended a Teen Smart Defensive Driving Class after which I earned my driver’s license. Going through driving school and even more so being in that defensive driving class has impacted the way that I drive.

When I am driving, I follow the rules of the road and all that I learned from school. When I get behind the wheel, I am rested, I am buckled, I do not drink or do drugs, I do not have more than 2 passengers, I do not touch my phone which is always set to “do not disturb” and I keep my distance from vehicles. If every driver would just follow those simple things, it would be impactful.

Fortunately, I have not been in a car accident. Unfortunately, I have been a passenger in my friend’s car where our speed was over the limit, while on the highway we hit an object and it became lodged in the front grill of the vehicle. I know that this object could have been safely avoided if my friend had obeyed the speed limit rules.

We can make a huge difference in our United States if we make some changes. We can make our roads safer and decrease the fatality rates. I honestly believe that if everyone is armed with the educational experience I started out with, it would change things. For any person who wants to obtain a driver’s license, no matter their age or what state they live in, the government should require and provide driving school that has both in-car and in-classroom. They also need to institute a cycle of every so many years some type of re-certification to allow licensed drivers to continue driving.

Driving is a privilege, not a right. Therefore we must adhere to the rules that come with that privilege. No one should ever lose their own life or be the cause of someone else’s loss of life from a driving privilege.