Driving safe.

Education is the most important ingredient in doing any task. One would not go deep-sea diving without the proper instruction first. Driving, the most important and vital activity people do daily, is no exception. Learning to drive is as important as learning the alphabet to those who commute anywhere. However, the consequences of not receiving driving education are much direr than misspelling words. The punishment for not properly learning to drive start with tickets and escalates quickly to car accidents and even death. For example, teenagers without education are significantly more likely to get in a fatal accident than those who received driver’s education. Those teenagers never got to see their future. The potential those car accident victims had to change the world remains forever lost due to unprepared driving. Thus, driver education is a must for today’s society. Any decrease in the statistic for fatal accidents due to the lack of driver’s education is monumental. Families should never have to go through the death of their child due to the lack of education.

Therefore, to stop these uneducated driving accidents, schools and parents should make driver education a priority for students. Teaching students early on that speeding, distracted driving, and not obeying traffic lights can have fatal consequences to themselves, loved ones riding with them, and even other drivers; helps students realize that driving is a serious matter. Thus, teaching teens a year or two before driving the dangerous situations they can cause with seemingly small actions gives teens an additional understanding of the dangers of driving. Furthermore, showing teenagers the preventability of dangerous acts like speeding, disobeying traffic signs, drunk driving, and distracted driving helps put driving dangerously into perspective for teenagers. Just as Smokey the Bear preaches, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” so should drivers education promote dangerous driving.

Furthermore, the topic of aggressive driving should be pushed further. Around half of the car accidents that occur are caused by aggressive driving. Teaching teenagers how to react calmly to others on the road and be considerate while driving is important. Common aggressive acts like throwing objects at windows, driving others off roads, getting physical with the other driver, bumping into the other car are all unnecessary and harmful to both drivers. While uncommon, road rage has become severe enough to result in murder. Thus, learning how to calm down during these situations saves everyone involved time, money, and even lives. Turning up the music, putting the issue in perspective, thinking of other things, and not engaging with the aggressive driver can help diffuse the situation.

Therefore, taking precautionary measures while driving should be second nature. Making sure all passengers have seatbelts, using turn signals, having patience for other drivers, being aware of others while waiting at lights, using headlights at night, and being cautious during the rain can be the difference between life and death.

Driving for many people is fun and gives a sense of freedom, but we must all make sure we stay alert to help our communities and ourselves.