The Importance of Drivers Education in Making Safe Roads for The Future

While I went through the process of getting my license, and starting to drive on my own, I didn’t consider how much I would need to look out for others’ mistakes. My Drivers Education was very flawed. I started with a morning in-person class for 2 weeks over the summer. The curriculum of this class seemed to mostly just be talking about all of the possible horrible things that could happen to you on the road. We didn’t talk about traffic laws, what to do if you get in a wreck etc. I was fortunate enough to be taught these things by my parents, but not everyone has parents who are able to teach, or able to teach well. My school also required a certain amount of hours on the range. Though I had been practicing for a while with my parents before this class, it made me realize how little I knew about driving. Since I had barely been out on the road, going through the steps of turning and parking was new to me. I had a really tight grip on the steering wheel, which was something my instructor worked to correct with me. That class was probably where I learned the most out of my entire drivers education. After range, we were required to go on the road for a specified amount of time with an instructor. Range was something that made me extremely anxious, and also showed me how little I knew about driving. At several points I was berated or yelled at for not turning the right way, or making small mistakes that until then, I had no idea I was making. Though these were mistakes that needed to be fixed, instead of being aware of the way I drove, being yelled at made me extremely anxious, and made it harder for me to drive well. The way I was taught in Road, severely negatively affected my self confidence. My mom continued to work with me on my driving, and the confidence in my driving for a few months before I finally took my driving test in June. My education for driving was very far from perfect. Without my parents I don’t think I would have been able to pass my driving test and overcome that anxiety when I did. However this education did not prepare me for nearly everything. About a week after getting my license, I was pulling out of the parking lot where I work. I work at a daycare in a shopping complex, making for a pretty large parking lot. While I drove through a place I had right of way, a large white truck hit my passenger side. I panicked. I had only had my license for a week and didn’t know what to do. In hysterics I got out of the car and called my mom. I kept saying sorry over and over to the driver, even though it wasn’t my fault, at the time it all happened so fast that I was very upset and not sure what happened. This experience, as awful and upsetting as it was for me, also taught me a lot. It gave me the knowledge of how to deal with a car crash, and it gave me a very important sense of defensive driving. My lack of knowledge made it easy for the other drivers to take advantage of me. I didn’t take any photos, as I didn’t know how. These driver’s attempted to make it seem like it was my fault, and that I hadn’t been looking. My parent’s could tell by the scuff marks on the road that that wasn’t true, and we reported the actual information to our insurance. The other driver also gave us fake insurance information, and therefore didn’t end up having to pay for the damage she did to my car.

There are several things that I should have learned during my driver’s education, that I did not. Learning what to do in a wreck would have helped me greatly in this situation, and prepared me for a possible accident. The importance of defensive driving should also have been much more emphasized to me in my education. Though I had the right of way, I still ended up being hit because of another driver’s actions. At the end of the day, all we can each do individually is drive as safely as we can, we can’t control other drivers on the road. One of the most important things to teach is defensive driving, and taking all of your surroundings into account. We need to be teaching drivers and adults alike, The dangers of distracted driving, and the importance of being attentive on the road. Having people take a review class every few years, or changing and improving the curriculum of the drivers education programs in schools is very important. If schools are teaching our future drivers how to drive safely, we need to make sure that this curriculum is effective at teaching what it needs to be teaching. Everyone does make mistakes as drivers, but it’s when we don’t work to improve upon those mistakes, that dangerous accidents and reckless driving happen. I have been very fortunate to have supportive parents who were able to teach me what my required drivers ed classes didn’t. But there are many people who rely on these instructors to teach them how to drive safely and responsibly. Curriculum used to prepare drivers needs to be improved upon, and programs to educate current drivers and remind them of dangerous habits and things that they too can do to make the roads safer for everyone.