Why Drivers Ed Reduces Deaths and How it Helped Me

Why
Drivers Ed Reduces Deaths and How it Helped Me

Being
that I am a 17-year-old high school student with a very busy
schedule, the last thing I wanted to do was take another class. Being
that I am a very anxious kid, my parents thought it would be the best
thing for me, to take Drivers Ed. I decided to wait until summer when
school had ended and I would have more time and I took the
accelerated class where you spend the majority of the day in class,
9a-1p but for a shortened amount of weeks. Still I knew I needed it.
My mom made me begin with the online application, practicing
answering the questions. Once we got in the car, we did an online
quiz first and then we would practice the things that I had
difficulty answering. Although my mom was calm and a great teacher,
she has been driving for thirty years and therefore has forgotten
some of the rules of the road. I embarked on my first class and
realized the instructor was extremely knowledgeable with many years
of experience. The lessons were really clear and covered all of the
information needed and taught things like how to check your vehicle,
not just rules of the road. The instructor also included the reasons
why the rules are put in place from a safety standpoint. Driver’s
Ed class didn’t just teach rules, safety, and regulations but it
also taught me confidence and responsibility which will help keep me
safe as well as others.

Steps
that can and should be taken to reduce the number of deaths that are
related to driving are that laws around use of seatbelts, speed and
drunk driving need to be tightened up on. In more than 15 states, not
using a seatbelt is a secondary offense which means you will only get
a ticket. If we want to get really strict and save lives, all teens
could be made to use the steering wheel sensors that measure blood
alcohol content and will not allow the teen driver to start the car
if alcohol is found to be in their system. It should also be
mandatory that teen drivers install a Bluetooth, CarPlay or any
program that can do talk text. This can also reduce the number of
deaths related to driving.

I
have been in a car with someone texting and driving and it makes me
very nervous. You get to see things from a completely different
perspective when you are sitting in the passenger seat. I do not
hesitate to let anyone know that I feel unsafe and that while I am in
the car to please not use their phone. I have offered to read a text
or respond to one if they feel they need to know right now what it
says. I refuse to use my phone while I am in the car and I even go so
far as to not use the GPS unless I absolutely need it, because that
can be a distraction as well. I am still at the point in my driving
career where my friends cannot be in the car with me and I am very
much ok with that as I see how much of a distraction they can be. I
will continue to make sure that all of my passengers where their
seatbelts, the radio is on low and talking is at a minimum so that I
can concentrate when I am on the road.