The responsibilities of a being a safe driver

Having a driver’s license is a privilege and should not be taken lightly. In order to get your driver’s license, you have to take and pass a Driver’s Education course. This can be taken as part of a high school course or with a private company. As part of this course, you must take the driving test and practice driving on a driving range and also on the roads with an instructor. However, the course doesn’t really go over all of the laws and regulations of how to act on the road. Also, in many cases people do what they need to in order to pass the test to get the license and then they throw it all out the window. What really needs to be done is to enhance the Driver’s Education courses further and for people to remember what can happen when you are behind the wheel.

I think one way that we could help prevent accidents is to have a process where people have to freshen up their Driver’s Education knowledge by having to retake the license test and driving portion of the course. This could also increase their knowledge in the laws of the road. This could be more frequent for younger drivers as they get more and more experience behind the wheel. By doing this I think it will make people more aware of how important it is to remain steadfast in understanding the rules and laws of the road. Some other steps that could be taken is to increase the driving age, having stricter laws, and making the test to get your license longer and harder. By raising the driving age, maybe people will be more mature and more aware of the damage they can cause by not being aware of and following the rules behind the wheel. Yes, I am aware that there are already laws in place, however, people still find ways to break them or bend them. If the laws were stricter or the police enforced them a little more, people would follow them more as they might fear the consequences. Right now, it only takes 40 hours of driving a few times on the ranges and then a road test for you to get your license. If it were harder to get your license, by having to complete 100 hours of driving, take multiple driving tests and have more driving time on the ranges and roads, then maybe we wouldn’t have so many young drivers involved in accidents.

A few years ago, I was driving with my father to go pick up a friend for a party and we were stopped at a stop light waiting to turn right. My father checked traffic in all directions and started to turn but then saw a car was coming so he hit the brakes. The person behind us was not paying attention and also started to go and ran into the back of us. Since we were not going that fast no one was hurt but it did scare me as this was the first time I had been involved in an accident. I was more confused than anything because back then I didn’t really understand that many people don’t always pay attention when they should. This accident could have been prevented if the person behind us had not stopped so close behind us and was paying more attention to what was going on around them.

What I can do to help in being more responsible behind the wheel is to make sure I am more aware of what is going on around me. I can also eliminate those things that may be distractions while I am driving. People may not think listening to the radio or talking to other people in the car can be a distraction, but they can be. By paying more attention to the road and what is around me, will help me be safer on the road.

Taking Driver’s Education is important as it is sometimes the first time a person has had an opportunity to get behind a wheel. If the courses and rules were more known and enforced maybe people would be more willing to follow them, as well as maybe if people really knew what not paying attention can cause. Based on this, I think the course should be enhanced so that the people taking the courses have more experience with what the laws and regulations are and have more opportunity to drive with an instructor before they get their license.