Drivers Education and it’s importance.

Driver’s education should be taken seriously and not lightly. So many people, young and old, are distracted while driving. Some individuals choose to think they are not distracted or impaired even if they are drunk. Consequences of driving while distracted or impaired have actions. It’s important to take a drivers education course, no matter your age, to better understand the realities of distracted driving, impaired or drunk driving, and to take a refresher drivers education course every 5 years.

There are many aspects of driving a vehicle that many people either do not know or chose to ignore when it comes to the safety of individuals both inside and outside of the moving vehicle. Driver’s education courses can help educate young drivers to use good judgement, reduce their willingness to take risks, speed, texting, drinking, or paying attention to their passengers instead of the road. Often, when a teenager is driving, they will be concerned with their phone, checking for texts, or music selections while they are operating a motor vehicle. With Drivers Education courses, those teenagers will be able to better understand the impact of their decisions while they are behind the wheel.

Distracted driving harms not only the passengers in the vehicle, but innocent pedestrians or other innocent individuals driving on the road with you. Teenagers are not the only ones responsible for driving safety. Drunk drivers already have their ability to see, think, and motor skills at a disadvantage when they get behind the wheel. The process of thinking rationally while driving drunk does not exist.

In 2023, there were a roughly 44,000 lives lost in traffic crashes in the United States. Each day, it’s estimated that nearly 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes. Most of the individuals responsible for those deaths due to drunk driving go to jail, but teaching these adult drunk drivers with a drivers’ education course may help prevent some of the deaths that occur. It will not help them all, but if it could help one person to better understand the consequences of their choices to drive while drunk, it may help save at least one life.

Drivers’ education is not only a course that should be taken for teenagers, but for adults as well. It should be mandatory for all licensed drivers to take a drivers education course or class at least once every 5 years so they can be taught any new or updated laws, learn about the safety of their passengers and other drivers on the road, and learn that the lives of those passengers and themselves are important. Teaching licensed drivers about the distractions that they may face when driving may help them overcome those distractions. Put their phones away, watch the road ahead of them, pay attention to intersection lights and signs and so forth.

I have had the experience of being in a car with someone that was driving at dangerous speeds. When my mom was married to my ex-stepfather, he would drive me to school or home or to the store. Sometimes, it would be okay, and I wouldn’t worry, but other times, I was scared to death of riding in a car with him. He would drive to fast down the interstate, 20 miles over the speed limit, or play around and swerve back and forth to make jokes thinking it was funny. It made me feel unsafe. When my mom would be in the car, she would constantly tell him to slow down it wasn’t safe. She got upset with him and told him that if he wanted to drive like an idiot, do it only on an empty road and without her and the kids in the car. She put her foot down and one day decided that it wasn’t safe for me, my siblings or herself to ride with him again, either she drove us, or we didn’t ride at all, and we took separate vehicles. He did what he wanted to, and a few later after their divorce, he still drove fast and without regard for others and turning a corner in the rain to fast, he rolled the car he was driving down a small hill. He survived, the tree didn’t, but since then, he has been better with his speed.

I drive every day to school, or run errands for my mom, or whenever we go places, I drive my mom and my siblings around. I never pick up my phone, I never look at it while I drive, and I always make sure I am paying attention to the road and other drivers. My mom has taught me about distracted driving, and to pay attention to big rig trucks or people on motorcycles. She has taught me to always stay at least 1-2 cars length behind the car in front of me, to move over to the left lane on the interstate when I’m coming up to an on ramp for other cars getting onto the interstate, never ride close behind or right beside a big rig truck because they may not be able to see you, always pay attention to motorcycles and stay at least 2 car lengths behind them, and to always first and foremost, before I start driving, always put my seatbelt on.

With a driver’s education course, everyone could learn how to avoid distracted driving, the consequences of driving drunk, and learn updated laws or technics with a refresher course. Driver’s education should be something that all licensed drivers complete to ensure they are up to date and stay safe on the road. It shouldn’t matter if a person lives in a big city or small town, drivers’ education courses are for everyone to be better prepared to be behind the wheel.