Teenagers

Teenagers

Driver education is a very necessary step in obtaining a driver’s license and being able to drive safely on the road. Not only is it absolutely essential to know the rules of the road, but it is also extremely important to know what happens when you don’t follow them, especially if you’re a teenager.

Teenagers, by nature, are not the best decision-makers. According to a Psychology Today article, “the reward pathways in the adolescent brain are on overdrive, so dopamine-producing activities… feel that much better during adolescence”(Walsh). This means that feeling good in the moment is more important than avoiding long-term consequences. This is the reason why many teens experiment with drugs, alcohol, and risky behaviors in general.

Considering their faulty relationship with risk and reward, adolescents and driving can be a dangerous mixture. Add illegal substances or activities to the cocktail, and the result can be detrimental. For this reason, coupled with the fact that the majority of people in the process of acquiring a driver’s license are teens, driver education is especially important for them.

Teenagers need to understand what happens when they engage in risky behavior while driving. They need to understand the significant impairment that occurs when under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They need to understand how much they are risking their lives and those of others when they look down at their phone for five seconds. Seeing as people aged 16 through 19 are “three times more likely than older drivers to be in a fatal crash,” it’s easy to see how important driver education is in accident prevention (Henderson). Because “young drivers who have not completed driver’s education are… 24 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal or injury accident,” it can be said with confidence that more educated drivers result in fewer deaths (Reed).

So, what can be done in addition to driver’s ed to decrease the number of driving-related fatalities? At an administrative level, I believe it would be moving to add to the curriculum of health classes and driver education classes. Students should become acquainted with more cases of risky behavior in teens resulting in a tragic outcome. For me personally, the reality of the effects of unsafe driving hit me hardest when I was listening to the stories of people who had lost someone they loved all because someone had to send a quick text. These stories appeal to the emotions and made me promise myself to never do something like that. If other teens are anything like me, hearing about more of these tragedies will deflect them from taking possibly fatal risks while driving. I think that putting more emphasis on these stories when learning about safe driving will demonize the perpetrators of such accidents, therefore turning listeners off from repeating the same risky behaviors that might cause fatalities.

Despite being subject to potentially dangerous situations in the car, I have never been in an accident. Although I have never been in the car with an intoxicated driver, I have seen many of my friends reach for their phone while in the driver’s seat. This always puts me in an awkward situation. It’s the classic peer-pressure situation. On one hand, I want to be safe, especially when my life is in someone else’s hands. On the other hand, I don’t want to seem like a stickler for rules or someone who doesn’t know how to have fun. Luckily, I have grown out of my trying-to-impress-my-friends phase. Now, when I see a driver reach for their phone, I offer to change that played-out song or respond to that text for them.

Ignoring that invisible peer-pressure isn’t the only thing I’ve had to grow into. I have also had to learn ways to steer clear of distractions while driving. As someone who has Attention Deficit Disorder, this is more critical for me than it might be for others.

Here are some tips that I have used to become a safe teen-aged driver that might also work for other people:

• Turn your phone to driving mode: It automatically silences notifications, and if you get the urge to pick up your phone, a message appears reading “are you driving?,” giving you another second to think through the bad decision you’re about to make. You can even program automatic responses to messages that appear while you’re behind the wheel.

• If you need to have your phone on for directions, turn up the volume!: Make sure you can hear the directions, because just seeing them takes your eyes off the road. Glance at the map occasionally at stoplights to make sure you know where you’re going!

• Listen to music (quietly!): Okay, this one might just be a me thing, but I get distracted very easily without some sort of background noise. I always listen to a playlist of my favorite songs at a low volume so as not to make it more of a distraction than an aid.

Adolescents might not have the best decision-making skills, but we can be taught the importance of safe driving and how bad things can get when it is not put into practice.

Sources

Reed, Leslie. “Study: Driver’s Ed Significantly Reduces Teen Crashes, Tickets | News Releases | University Of Nebraska-Lincoln”. Newsroom.Unl.Edu, 2015, http://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2015/08/13/Study:+Driver’s+ed+significantly+reduces+teen+crashes,+tickets.

Henderson, Tim. “Why Many Teens Don’t Want To Get A Driver’s License”. PBS Newshour, 2020, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/many-teens-dont-want-get-drivers-license.

Walsh, M.A., Erin, and David Walsh, Ph.D. “The Teenage Brain: Risky Or Ready To Learn?”. Psychology Today, 2019, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/smart-parenting-smarter-kids/201909/the-teenage-brain-risky-or-ready-learn.