Name: Abram William Matice
From: Saint Johns, Michigan
Votes: 0
According to the IIHS-HDLI, in 2023, a total of 3,048 teenagers ages 13–19 died in fatal car crashes. The fact that so many young people with their whole lives ahead of them died in just one year — and that this issue isn’t being given the attention it deserves — should be devastating to every one of us. According to the National Safety Council, in 2023, 1,789 people died in car crashes involving teen drivers — not including the teen drivers themselves. This highlights how teen driving safety is not just a concern for teenagers, but also for everyone who shares the road with them. Improving the safety of teen drivers means tackling several challenges, and one of the most important is education. There isn’t a simple solution to this problem — and I know this because I’ve been in an accident myself, and I’ve been around many other young people who have too.
Driver’s education plays a pivotal role in the safety of teen drivers, but it often doesn’t get the attention it deserves. In my driver’s ed class, our teacher was very old — the kind of old where he would sit at his desk and be half-asleep while we read from a book or watched safety videos. To be honest, it felt like he had lost his passion for teaching young people how to drive safely and just wanted us to pass. Even so, I took the class seriously — though many of my peers didn’t. Most of them just wanted to get through the class so they could finally get their license and enjoy the freedom of driving. Situations like this happen all over the country, and this is where teen driving safety starts to break down. In classes like mine, students are more focused on getting their license than learning how to drive safely. While that’s understandable, it doesn’t make it right. When teens lose sight of the purpose of driver’s education, which is to prepare them for safe driving, they’re putting themselves and others at risk. My class taught me a lot of important things, and when you look at the statistics on teen fatalities, you can see just how life-saving those lessons really are. Driver’s ed not only teaches how to drive, but how to avoid crashes, deal with road hazards, and handle dangerous situations. It even covers basic but crucial things like limiting distractions — such as passengers or phones. These classes are a fundamental part of learning to drive safely, and if students took them more seriously, the roads would be safer for everyone.
As a consequence of not paying attention in driver’s ed, many young drivers face distractions behind the wheel. Things like phones, music, or even friends in the car can have a big impact on a teen’s ability to drive safely. According to The Ward Firm, distracted driving is the single leading cause of crashes. That means if teens avoided distractions, they could significantly lower their risk of being in a crash. One of my favorite stories that relates to this is something my friend experienced while driving to tennis practice one night. After school, she and her teammates had to carpool because practice was in a city about twenty minutes away. During the drive, everyone was talking, listening to music, and just being typical teenagers. But the friend who was driving started to feel overwhelmed by all the noise and activity in the car. When someone suddenly shouted directions, she panicked and turned onto a one-way street going the wrong direction. The whole car started to panic. Luckily, there weren’t many cars around, and she was able to turn around safely. But if there had been more traffic, it could have ended very differently. Our school could have been mourning the loss of five young tennis players the next day. Simple steps — like choosing the right driver, keeping the car calm, and limiting distractions — could’ve easily prevented that situation. In general, these are the kinds of things teens need to think about before they start driving, but too often they don’t.
All in all, teen driver safety needs to improve. Simple actions like paying attention in driver’s ed, thinking ahead before getting behind the wheel, and communicating with friends can go a long way in reducing the number of crashes teens are involved in. While teens have a responsibility to be safer, schools, parents, and teachers do too. Schools should make sure their driver’s education programs are focused on real learning and safety. Parents should make sure their kids are driving responsibly, and teachers should actually care about what they’re teaching — not just sit at a desk and let students pass, like my instructor did. There are many small safety steps that cost only seconds to do but are often ignored — and instead, the cost ends up being a lifetime.
