Driver Education

Driver education is very important for reducing the number of deaths due to driving. The number of people in my drivers education class that didn’t know how to start a car was sad, especially since one of the requirements for taking the course is having at least some driving experience. Driver education was the only reason why any of those kids even learned how to drive. Without it they would have been driving down the wrong side of the street, not knowing the difference between the brake and the gas, or how to even start the car in general.

I think one of the ways to reduce driving-related deaths would be to also teach kids in drivers education what are all the different driving distractions. They teach about the dangers of texting while driving, or being on the phone in general while driving, but there are so many other distractions while driving besides just phones. Some examples include, eating while driving, for adolescents especially their friends being in the car with them, driving while drowsy, or even parents with their kids in the back seat crying/complaining. Knowing all the different types of distractions that can happen while driving, and what are ways you can reduce these distractions would be very impactful for youths.

I have never personally been in a car accident, but I have had family members who have been in car accidents. In fact, the amount of times I have had to tell my mom not to merge over because there’s a car next to her is far more than it should be. How she drives alone, and likes to make fun of my driving is wild. Also, living in Utah, we are not very good drivers to begin with. Especially where I live no one knows how to use roundabouts or four-way stops. I don’t think it has to do with our drivers education system, because I understand how these things work, but a great majority of people in Utah either don’t care, or genuinely don’t understand how they work. Some of my family members are no exception when it comes to not knowing how to use roundabouts and four-way stops.

Some ways I can improve my driving and be a safer driver is not riding peoples rear ends and giving them space. I can also improve my speeding, I just go 5 over, but in some areas I should stick to the designated speed limit and not go over. I do pull over when I need to reply to text or make a phone call so I try to encourage others to do the same and if I know if a friend or family member is driving I try not to text or call them until they have reached their destination. One idea I have had to raise awareness of distracted driving is a video short of someone driving in their neighborhood, and their phone falls on the ground next to them. They look around to ensure they are clear, I mean it’s their neighborhood, they are almost home, what harm could really come from quickly reaching down and grabbing the phone. But while they were reaching down for the phone they missed a child who was playing in their driveway with their ball. The ball gets away from the child and goes rolling into the street, and the child goes chasing after it. Cuts to the individual getting their phone and coming back up and seeing the child last minute. Screen cuts to the opposite side of the street from where the child had been and the ball rolls over to that side. Having the audience piece together that this distracted driver had struck the child. Then posting this on social media, I know my school would have contests for such videos to raise awareness so showing them in highschools especially and giving some automobile indent facts at the end. Such as, “52 percent of collisions in the United States occur within a 5-mile radius of the home, and 69 percent of collisions occur within 10 miles.” I feel like a lot of people don’t know this fact, given that you drive so often, how could you get in an accident? That is what causes the accidents, you become complacent and just go into autopilot and stop paying attention to the road because you have driven it, or been driven to your home so many times its second hand to get there. Just like the “dumb ways to die” video, I feel like video shorts like this can be very impactful, especially for youths since their whole lives are on social media and their attention spans are shorter so short awareness videos keep them captivated and make larger impacts.