Responsibility on the Road: A Lesson for All Drivers

Picture this: You are sitting in your car waiting in line to exit a school parking lot, inching forward almost unconsciously every couple of minutes. Suddenly, a car pulls out of a space behind you and speeds at 20 miles per hour to cut you in line. You brake and barely miss a collision as the driver turns into the line. You are more alarmed than anything, and are relieved to make a turn at the intersection that gets you away from the other car. This, unfortunately, was a real experience of mine and similar to the everyday experiences of other drivers at my high school. It’s easy to assume, especially when you are on a highway, that vehicular accidents are a natural result of the sheer abundance of vehicles on the road and the high speeds that they often have to travel at. After all, an accident is an accident. However, what experiences like mine remind us of is that the behaviors raising the risk of accidents occurring are not themselves accidents. Vehicular accidents exist in the world almost entirely because of many decisions drivers intentionally make. It follows logically that, if drivers contribute to dangerous road incidents through ignorance or lack of caution, then the most effective solution to reducing those incidents is to educate and influence drivers toward safer behaviors. Here lies the importance of driver education, perfectly analogous to the reason why firearm safety training is required for those wanting to own firearms. The problem governments, parents, educators, and student drivers themselves are all faced with, however, is the question of which specific methods should be used to correct unsafe driving.

Answering that central question requires first identifying the most dangerous behaviors drivers exhibit, or in other words the specific behavioral issues that need correcting. A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (of the U.S. Department of Transportation) from 2021 lists several driving errors and the number of fatal crashes associated with each in that year. Of these, the deadliest was driving too fast for the current conditions (or in excess of a posted limit, or racing), causing 11,254 fatal vehicular crashes in 2021, 18.5% of the total. The next deadliest practice was driving under the influence (making up 11.2% of fatal crashes), followed by operating the vehicle carelessly and failing to yield right of way. These are just four examples of how driving can result in deaths, but together they cause nearly half of all fatal vehicular crashes. Not only are these behaviors important to focus on because they are significant causes of death, but also because they are similar to all other driving mistakes in key ways. Even looking at just these four, a couple of clear patterns can be identified in the nature of deadly driving. These are that being uninformed (or careless) about laws and safety can cause crashes, and that being caught up in certain social situations and emotions can lead to misuse of a vehicle. A driver who has not been thoroughly instructed in the complex laws of right of way might improperly turn when oncoming traffic isn’t prepared to stop. Alternatively, a driver can cause a fatal crash when they have been busy drinking and are either pressured to drive drunk or aren’t informed about the risks of it.

Much of the solution to discouraging ignorance and preoccupation in driving lies in systemically requiring thorough driver education programs by law for student drivers. The Nebraska Prevention of Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln demonstrated this in a 2003-2010 review of Nebraska youth’s driving records and their status of having completed formal education. 12.9% of permit-holders who only had driving practice supervised by an adult were involved in car crashes, while 11.1% of the permit-holders who also studied formal driver education had car crashes. Furthermore, aside from crashes, 18.3% of learners without formal education received moving traffic violation tickets, compared to only 10.4% of the other group. The data is clear that formal classes training students in well-established safety principles is an effective tool for reducing danger for young drivers. This is presumably because students who take driver education courses gain and retain safety information more effectively. However, because this is large-scale data relating to systemic methods, there are other variables involved, so it is not enough to rely entirely on driver education programs.

Rather, driver education needs to be paired with individually focused solutions to target the logical causes of unsafe driving. One such personal solution is patient teaching from the parents or guardians of young people learning to drive. If what is needed to reduce vehicle crash rates is influencing drivers toward making safer choices, there will usually be no better vehicle for that change than the people close to a driver. A driver is most likely more willing to change their driving practices when they are patiently instructed and emotionally appealed to by family members and friends. I know, from my own experience, that I was initially not very invested in my driver education program and often skipped over details. It was only when I started practicing driving with my dad and an instructor that I understood that driving is extremely complicated and that the specific rules truly are important to know for anyone hoping not to endanger lives.

A complete solution plan for reducing vehicular crashes has to include both mandated driver education and support for every individual driver that is learning. The latter involves considering student drivers first and foremost as human beings, with social issues and faults in reasoning. Every person with a friend or family member learning to drive must take on the responsibility of encouraging them to drive safely, including encouraging them to avoid driving under the influence and encouraging them to value driver education courses. As family culture and government initiatives push those courses to the forefront of a student’s experience in learning to drive, driver education will be able to fully assume its role of teaching the details of responsible driving.

Works Cited

1.) “Facts + Statistics: Aggressive Driving” NHTSA, Insurance Information Institute, 2021 https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-aggressive-driving#Driving%20Behaviors%20Reported%20For%20Drivers%20And%20Motorcycle%20Operators%20Involved%20In%20Fatal%20Crashes,%202021

2.) Shell, Duane and Newman, Ian. ”Study: Driver’s ed significantly reduces teen crashes, tickets” University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2015 https://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2015/08/13/Study:+Driver’s+ed+significantly+reduces+teen+crashes,+tickets#:~:text=Young%20drivers%20who%20have%20not,an%20accident%2C%20the%20study%20showed.