About a Driver’s Education.

The importance of driver’s education in reducing the number of deaths caused by driving is essential to gain the appropriate knowledge of both our laws and learn from the experiences that stem from those deaths. How else can we learn if not from our mistakes? Driver’s education is meant to provide aspiring drivers with the tools necessary to be comfortable and safe while driving in our world today. A driver’s education is only one requirement that needs to be fulfilled prior to handing over a driver’s license in your governing state.

Knowledge of your state laws is an essential piece to becoming a better driver, as not knowing the laws governing your state can lead to concerns addressing safety for all driving parties. Simple driving laws such as “drivers must follow the rules of the road, such as speed limits, traffic signs, signals, and lane markings” (dmv.org). Even if the driver doesn’t support a posted speed limit and makes the decision to exceed the posted speed limit, the laws were designed with both drivers and pedestrians in mind.

The mistakes made by drivers in the past has also contributed to the need of completing a driver’s education program. Nobody is perfect; therefore, mistakes happen, and with those mistakes, the driving community have learned how to avoid making deadly mistakes by providing those examples in a driver education program. We can take an example such as driving with cell phones, “drivers are not allowed to use mobile phones for calling, texting, or reading messages while driving, unless they have a hands-free system installed. Drivers under 18 are prohibited from using phones even with a hands-free system” (dmv.org). At some point and at some time, something deadly arose from using a cellular phone while driving.

There are many steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving, such as requiring a formal course taught in a recognized institution (High School/College) with a pass/fail grade, behind the wheel driving lessons longer than what is recognized today (only 6 hours are required in CA), increasing driving age requirement for youths, driving simulations with multiple case scenarios, law enforcement ride-along for a day in the shoes of a highway patrol officer, if out-of-state drivers then an exam to refresh current state driving requirements and regulations, increase costs of driving felonies (both financially and lawfully), and so forth. The more awareness, training, and knowledge the drivers can soak up, the more prepared and safer the roads will be – knowing right from wrong and making decisions based upon repercussions may go a longer way.

I have been fortunate enough not to have experienced a car accident in my youth, both my parents have good driving records and mind the traffic rules; however, they have been in car accidents when they were younger (they will hit by drivers who either ran red lights or stop signs). I can share, though, an example of a friend of my brother who drove irresponsibly recently. I typically ride my bike to school each morning, and recently, my brother was being picked up by his buddy from school. One morning, he drove past the stop sign at the end of the street (4-way stop), and then made a large turn in the middle of the intersection to head down our home street. I was riding my bike close to the sidewalk and ultimately thought my life was over as he was driving on the wrong side of the street (right where I was). He claimed he has a dashboard cam of the incident and swearing he didn’t do that. My parents asked for several days to receive a copy or view of the video, but nothing came about. My brother is no longer permitted to ride with his friend.

I believe the biggest steps to take to be a better and safe driver are to just pay attention to your surroundings, focus on driving (not switching media channels or talking on a cell phone), know the consequences of your actions if you are driving irresponsibly and put a halt on friends and/or family who may be doing things they shouldn’t be while driving (drinking alcohol, illegal drugs, and/or prescription medications that cause drowsiness), and other life-threatening activities that could cause a death by driving. I sometimes see poster signs such as “click-it” or “don’t drink and drive,” or “watch for pedestrians.” I believe if we post more awareness signs to target negative driving behaviors, we can push the messages into our subconscious thinking, so we avert those accidents from occurring.

The most important step we can take in the beginning is to have a solid foundation for the responsibilities involved with driving. If we can lay a solid foundation of a driver’s education requirement, such as I mentioned previously (formal taught course, driving simulations, ride-along, etc.), then I believe we can reduce the number of deaths by driving each year. Simply just offering a written exam that can be quickly memorized wouldn’t provide all the necessary tools to become a “better” or “safer” driver in our driving community. More action is needed to support the driver’s education program currently offered.