Emphasis on Driver’s Education

Driver education is a resource that is often overlooked. Many people, including my own family, feel that they can teach better than someone with a drivers ed certification can and I think that sometimes this ignorance can lead to catastrophic results. While every individual must take a written driving exam before simply getting their driver’s permit, to begin driving, most people just try to memorize the answers to the questions rather than actually taking into account that this information is necessary to understand in order to be safe on the road.

In the essay assignment overview, it states that over 34,000 Americans die every year as a result of driving. Driving is something that most people, including myself, do on a daily basis without much thought, it is simply part of routine. Since driving is in most people’s daily routine, it can allow us to become negligent on the road because it does not seem like a big deal. When it comes to driving any kind of vehicle, it is always better to be safe than sorry, but many people think it is better to be on time rather than late.

Some small steps that can be taken to reduce the number of driving related deaths would simply be requiring at least one driving course to be completed by every individual getting a license. While I am sure this would upset people, I think that it would at least reduce the deaths by a bit because we would all be just slightly more conscious of the choices we make on the road. I know drunk driving is also a very prominent issue despite the people that come speak to schools about their experiences either as the driver or the victim and I do think this helps, I am just not sure what other ways as a country, we could put limitations on alcohol abuse without citizens feeling overly controlled by the government. This is a topic that can become quite sensitive to some people especially with how they view having a license as a right that cannot be taken away. If the perspective on what the importance of a license really is can be altered to being seen as a privilege rather than a right, it may help people understand the liability it comes with.

In March 2023 I was involved in my very first car accident. I was in a left turn lane while the light was blinking yellow, and the lane I was yielding to had just changed to a red light. As I went to take the turn, a car ran that red light and I ended up colliding with them. The people I had hit did not have car insurance and my car was significantly more damaged than theirs had been. I knew that I could have been paying closer attention but I also know they could have been more conscientious of the choice they were making by running a red light in the middle of rush hour. While this accident was not severe, these people tried to sue my family and I for $250,000 despite being uninsured. It was a very aggressive situation and I often think that if I just had not tried to turn then things could have been so different. They did lose the insurance claim and got no money out of my insurance policy but they also hired a lawyer to attempt to sue my family outside of the claim which they also lost. This event caused a lot of stress for my family and I. At some points I thought my family was going to be put in a seriously awful financial situation but we luckily were able to dodge that scenario.

Becoming a more thoughtful and conscientious driver could have saved my family and myself a lot of stress, time, and money. If the accident had been more severe, this situation would have been significantly worse so I am very lucky that things turned out the way they did. After an experience like this, I definitely take more care when I am driving, especially when taking a left turn. You never know who is going to come through that intersection and you also do not necessarily know how you’ll react when put under pressure. If as a country, we were able to require a driving course every time someone got a license, or renewed their license, it could help change the way people view driving as a thoughtless activity.