Road Ready

Driving isn’t a natural talent. It is something that one must be educated in. Driver’s education is the first step to the safety of yourself and others on the road. To become licensed, you must take a series of courses and tests. These tests in Driver’s education are important because you will be driving for the rest of your life. It’s best if you can do that safely and without risks of accidents and deaths. There is an average of 43,000 fatal car accidents each year in the United States. The ages of the drivers involved in these fatal car crashes are from 16 to 24 years old. This shows that the crashes happen not so long after these drivers gain their license issued by the government. The main reason for all of these crashes is distracted driving. The younger the driver, the more prone they are to check their phones, blast music to extremely high levels, have a lot of friends in the car, and have a shorter attention span. Getting a driver’s license is a privilege that must be earned. That privilege comes with the responsibility of taking care of a car and understanding the risks of driving.

Driving education is what someone is taught in order to have a safe experience while driving on the road. It is a significant factor in lowering the number of deaths caused by accidents. There is something that they teach driver’s education students that helps with reducing accident deaths. They teach defensive driving. Defensive driving is the driver’s response to potential hazards, which would include other drivers, inclement weather, damaged roads, and many other issues. In driver’s education, it is not its own lesson, but they do teach from ways to maneuver these issues. For example, they say not to get too close to the car in front of you in case they hit their brakes hard or you have to move to a different lane because the car behind you isn’t slowing down. This is a situation in which I have experienced. I was driving with my dad in the passenger seat, and I had stopped at a red light. There was a woman who was distractedly driving behind me and hit the back of my car. Luckily there wasn’t any damage to the cars but if she had been driving any faster, either or both of us could have been seriously injured. Driver’s education is about you learning how to protect others as you are the one in the driver’s seat and defensive driving is protecting yourself from others’ bad and unsafe driving.

There was another incident where I was in a car accident as a kid, but it wasn’t because of another driver. This accident was because of inclement weather. My mom was driving on the freeway in the winter, and she needed to slow down. She wasn’t able to because of the ice on the freeway. This caused our car to spin out of control because my mom was trying to avoid hitting the car in front of her. The car had ended up hitting the concrete barrier of the freeway. A way this accident could have been avoided is that she could have been driving slower because of the snow and ice. This car crash could have also been avoided if there was enough room between the two cars so there wouldn’t have to be a sudden stop or deceleration. There are many steps to be a better and safer driver for yourself and other drivers on the road with you. For instance, constantly check your mirrors and look at your blind spots when making any turns. This will prevent you from crashing into another car while making a turn into a different lane. Another step is to stay at the speed limit. If the car is going at a speed where it is no longer easy to control, then you must slow down. If you don’t, it will cause a serious accident. Also not being distracted while you are driving. This means not using your phone, not listening to music at extremely high volumes, and just paying attention to the road and your surroundings.

In conclusion, driving is something you must learn. Driver’s education teaches you all you need to know about being a safe driver on the road. To be a good driver, you must take other drivers around you into consideration. You can’t be safe if you are distracted and not paying attention to your surroundings. Driving is a privilege but also a risk to yourself and others. That is why driver’s education is important for reducing the number of deaths caused by driving.