Steps to safer driving

Driving was a dream I’ve had since I was 6 years old and my uncle took me on my first ever road trip. He looked so relaxed, like he hadn’t a care in the world. It was just him, the wheels, and the open road. I remember telling myself that I would one day be like that too, whatever it took.

I am originally from Romania, but I lived in Japan for 18 years until a month ago when I moved to the US. As I turned 17, I enrolled in a Japanese driving school for a year to prepare to get my license when I turned 18, according to the Japanese law. In Japan, to get my license that enables me to drive both a manual and an automatic, I had to take 10 hours of classes with a textbook and 15 hours of driving to get a probationary permit, followed by 15 hours of classes including 3 hours of mandatory CPR education with 19 hours of driving. I successfully got my license, and in the same day got my international permit approved, as I was planning to go back to my home country Romania for Christmas and intended to drive there.

Surprisingly, driving once in the Romanian city was enough for me to decide that until I go back to Japan, I don’t want to drive again. The whole driving population was unbelievably different from Japan. The roads were unorganized, and the people were thinking only of themselves leading to traffic and road rage. When I talked to my Romanian friends who had a Romanian driver’s license, they told me that the process of getting a license is much easier in Romania than it is in Japan, sometimes even being able to pass the test by offering the examiner bribes.

After I moved to the US a month ago and started driving, my first opinion was that the roads were much wider than Japan where you could barely make a left turn. However, I also experienced being passed by cars going well over the speed limit, getting cut in by cars at the last minute, and having the cars in front of me turn without a blinker signal.

Experiencing driving at only 18 in 3 very different countries, I became curious of how the driver education in each country correlated to the safety on the road. After researching, I found that “there were 1,949,000 car crashes in the United States in 2019, followed by 381,000 in Japan” (para. 3). I believe that this statistic indirectly relates to the intensity and meticulousness of each country’s driver education, as Japan has a more strict driver education curriculum and a higher passing requirement that statistically led to 80% less crashes than the US. In comparison to the total of 25 hours in the classroom that Japan requires you to take in order to get a license, New Jersey only requires a minimum of 6 hours of classroom instruction. This comparison supports the claim that a more thorough driver education is crucially important in reducing the number deaths as a result of driving.

In 2014, I was in Romania and my uncle was driving us to visit a castle in the countryside. It had just been after a day of heavy rain, and when he turned at the curve, he lost control of the wheel and the car fell over on the side. My mother was pregnant with my brother, and I was only 8 years old, discombobulated of what had just happened. The next thing I knew, my view was shifted 90°and heard shouts from people around our car who were running towards us to get help. We managed to get out of the car through the window facing the sky, thankfully with no fatal injuries. While the cause had nothing to do with the driver’s recklessness, in hindsight more attention should have been paid when driving on a wet, slippery road.

As the possibility that the experience could’ve turned into a deathly one dawned on me, I began to think what steps can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving. When it comes to driving in inclement weather, the chances of fatal crashes increase exponentially. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Over 1.2 million, or approximately 21%, of annual motor vehicle accidents are caused by hazardous weather conditions (gkbm, para. 3). Keeping this significant number in mind, the driver education should focus on teaching students how to manage driving in suboptimal weather conditions not only on paper, but also in practice. This could be done by physically driving with an instructor through rain, fog, and snow. However, since it is impossible to control the weather to let the student practice in each respective condition, I would suggest the implementation of simulators. If we invest in simulators that would emulate various inclement weather conditions, students would be able to experience first hand how the control on the steering wheel would change, and how the wheels would skid in such a situation.

From the manufacturer’s perspective, creating an automatic blinker system could be a step in reducing the number of deaths related to driving. For example, a motorist could enter his desired route to the destination, followed by the Artificial Intelligence incorporated in the GPS calculating all the necessary turns the driver has to make to arrive to the desired point. When the motorist approaches the turn, the AI would automatically turn the vehicle’s turn signals on at an adequate amount of time before, which would prevent the motorist forgetting to turn on/off the signal, or turning it on too late for the vehicle behind to anticipate his/her next action. In such ways, the steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving can be identified both on the driver’s side, and the vehicle manufacturer’s side. It is with efforts on both side that we will be able to reduce the number of accidents, as both technical improvement and ethical awareness is a prerequisite in doing so.

Japan emphasized the cruciality of being a safer driver, especially in the spirit of helping others be safer on the road as well. As an epitome for this principle, the mandatory 3-hour CPR and first aid course can be argued. I had to take the class to first-hand experience on a dummy how to give CPR, use AED, call for help, and how to act when if I was ever in an emergency or accident. According to the Cleveland Clinic (2018), “slightly more than half of Americans (54 percent) say they know how to perform CPR” (para. 2). On the other hand, the National Library of Medicine (2017) states that “Seventy percent of people in Japan learned CPR, and 30% of people learned CPR more than two times” (para. 3). It can be argued that the driving school plays a significant part in the high percentage of adults knowing CPR in Japan, as 90% of the Japanese population 18 and older have a driver’s license (Samurai Tours, 2021, para. 1), and as I have stated before, it is mandatory for the driver population to undergo CPR training. I strongly believe that this part of the curriculum makes a motorist better prepared in case of an unpleasant case such as an accident, making driving safer for everyone. Aside from factual knowledge, having mandatory CPR lessons also have a psychological effect. Knowing what first aid entails would also increase the motorist’s fear of encountering a real life situation of this sort. This would lead him/her to being more attentive to make sure he/she will not create a similar circumstance on the road, encouraging safe driving on the roads. I advocate the incorporation of CPR and first aid lessons in the process of obtaining a driver’s license, as I believe it will be a step to nurture aware, safer drivers who can also help others.

In conclusion, driving should not be considered a facile task. Driving, especially in the United States, has become a necessity rather than a privilege as transportation depends greatly on automobiles. Creating a safe driving environment is a cumulative result of individual responsibility and awareness. It is impossible to make a change alone, but when the majority of the driver population shares the same objective, the impossible becomes possible. I believe that a proper driver education that prepares students for different possibilities on the road is an effective step to decrease the number of tragic accidents, as well as providing the driver population with the adequate knowledge regarding first aid. These steps are vital in making the road safer and thus driving into a more enjoyable activity. Into the activity we all dreamed of and admired when we were kids.