Driver Education

Driving Education

By Devon Reinhart

Driver education is something that many people do not take seriously, they choose to act irresponsible without considering the lives of others or themselves. Driving safely is something I take very seriously and when I’m behind the wheel, the road is all that matters. By properly educating people on the risks of driving and how to do so safely, we can drastically increase driver deaths and injuries

The reason many accidents happen is due to people thinking that it wouldn’t happen to them. People do not understand when you take 5 seconds off the road to send or read a text message, they are traveling the length of a football field with no visual aid to know where you’re going. By people understanding the risks they are putting themselves and others at by not allowing your full attention to the road would greatly increase the number of aware drivers. Many people are uneducated on how many brothers, mothers, fathers and near and dear family members are lost every day out of people’s lives do to uneducated driving.

The steps that are needed to be taken to reduce the number of deaths due to driving are simple. Drivers need to understand that when they get behind the wheel, getting from where they are to where they are going is the most important task at that time. A text message can wait until you are safely parked and they world isn’t going to end if you miss a call. By compromising that simple idea, you are increasing the risk of not only killing yourself but as well as someone else. Making sure that your care is in great working order before getting on the road is another very important task, a simple malfunction found in the driveway can be easily corrected, one found after rear ending someone at 55mph is not. When you pull onto the road you are signing a mutual agreement that you are not only going to keep yourself safe but all the others on the road too.

We all have unfortunately seen or been a part of someone else’s irresponsible driving. My mother was coming home from a conference after getting a new car 3 days before and was rear ended. Although it was a somewhat minor accident, and nobody was thankfully not hurt. It was an easily avoidable accident had the driver who hit her not had been looking off into the distance at a wreck that had happened minutes before. Irresponsible driving is something that we unfortunately must deal with daily, drivers driving to get somewhere faster not considering others. Doing whatever they see just to get there sooner than they had before.

I take driving responsibly very seriously, after seeing videos in driver’s education school and knowing that driving responsibly is not only about protecting yourself but as well as others. I do not text and drive, I see it as whatever I need to inform someone about, it can wait until I arrive to where I’m going and safely parked. If I need to let someone know something immediately, I find a place to park in a parking lot and then proceed to do what I need to do. By simply doing this I am choosing to put my life and others before whatever the task I need to complete. When I ride with someone who is practicing poor driving traits, I can tell them that I am concerned for the safety of not only them but as well me. It might make them upset and many times not even realize they are doing it. By doing this you are protecting other drivers on the road as well.