Driving CAN Save Lives

As a 17-year-old teenage boy, driving is core to a significant portion of my life. I am very active in the community and thus, am required to drive significant distances regularly. My piano teacher’s music studio is a twenty-minute drive north of the city in which I live, my saxophone teacher’s studio is approximately a twenty-minute drive east of my home, and my guitar teacher works approximately ten minutes west of my home. Thus, every week I spend over two hours on the road commuting to various rehearsals and appointments. As a result, driving, moreover safe driving, is integral to my lifestyle.

 

As a young driver, I am particularly aware of events that transpire while on the road. Having just completed drivers’ education, I believe I am particularly perceptive of the choices of other drivers around me. I have come to notice two different trends. Older drivers that have been driving for a significant period seem to be more comfortable in the vehicle and with their abilities. As a result, they are often difficult to predict, as they have adopted different bad habits over time. This might include late signaling, not shoulder checking, not remaining in their lane when making a turn in an intersection, or simply not observing new signs. This becomes especially dangerous when coupled with young drivers that are either reckless or extremely reliant on the rules that were taught to them in their education programs.

 

Since undergoing drivers’ education, I have noticed many dangerous driving habits from my mother and father. Often, they fail to shoulder check when changing lanes and don’t observe proper full stops at stop signs. However, I find their actions most dangerous when we are late in our travels. At these times, they regularly exhibit aggressive driving techniques including speeding, excessive acceleration, and not observing all road signs. I believe these habits are the result of many years of driving and would be corrected if they repeated drivers’ education.

In Ontario, we have a graduated licensing system that allows drivers certain permissions at different stages of licensing. One of the first times I ever drove alone, I slid off the road. I was driving to my piano lesson after dark during an unexpected freezing rain event. Going around a curve, I lost control of the vehicle, spinning out over approximately 50 meters. What allowed me to focus and keep the car on the road through this incident was my driver training. Having discussed this very event with my driving instructor allowed me to be able to respond quickly, effectively keeping me out of the ditch. This close call has taught me to always drive carefully and expect the worst possible conditions on the road ahead.

 

Instruction and practice are key to learning and maintaining every skill and are critically important with driving. Safer and better educated drivers make better decisions and are more conscious of their impact on others while on the road. I believe this is the kind of mindset that is built through driving education programs but that is required to be maintained by drivers throughout their lifetimes to limit risky situations and car accidents as a result. Thus, to make the road a safer place, I believe that drivers’ education recertification courses should be mandatory to complete every five years. This would ensure that drivers are constantly thinking about following the rules of the road and are updated on safe driving practices on a regular basis. This would ensure that education programs reach a wider audience, and continue to target that audience, making them more effective. This will help break dangerous habits that are the cause of many car accidents in older drivers.

 

On top of the standard drivers’ education program that is taught to young drivers at the age of 16, follow up education relating to impaired driving should be required. This course should address the dangers of substance use when relating to driving. This would ensure that these issues are addressed at a point that is relevant, to ensure retention. By incorporating this in standard drivers’ education, many of these messages do not have a full impact on students, making these efforts in vain. To respond to this, I believe that drivers should be required to participate in a provincially run course detailing the real dangers once they have reached the age of consumption in that province. This would effectively provide the follow up required to refresh this important message in the minds of youth and instill important habits that would protect an entire community from unsafe driving.

Dangerous driving such as speeding, not wearing seatbelts, driving under the influence, driving while texting or driving with a vehicle in poor condition are situations directly related to fatal or significantly damaging accidents. It is thus of the utmost importance to demonstrate the connection between these outcomes, and their causes as a part of divers’ education. This will prevent situations that generally lead to accidents on the road, protecting lives in the process.

 

As someone that is required to commute regularly, I am very conscious of the dangers of unsafe driving, while also understanding how key vehicles are to our lives. Some of my friends have been in serious car accidents, just as I have had many close calls. This danger and these incidents have taught me that accidents are preventable to a degree and that the steps to reduce these risks fully reside in proper driving education.