Teaching Attentiveness

Trent Williams

Teaching Attentiveness

It is no surprise that driving is a dangerous endeavor in today’s world. Among the dangers on the road are obstacles on the road, other drivers along the way, and the results of your own driving. These dangers are real and finding ways to reduce the risk are of paramount importance, especially to the parents of new and existing drivers, and the solution is to prepare the drivers for the risks of the road ahead of time. Over the years different methods and programs have been created to fulfill this need, but the problem is that they aren’t being used and aren’t being taken seriously. The truth is that taking a driver education course will greatly reduce the chances of being injured or killed on the road by making the driver aware of the possible hazards that will be encountered while driving.

The real power of a drivers’ education course is that someone with more experience driving is able to impart that wisdom to less experienced drivers. Many accidents that happen come because the driver either didn’t know what was going on around them or didn’t know what to do in a situation. It is difficult to safely navigate the road when all of the signs may as well be a foreign language or the driver isn’t aware that they need to pay attention to their side view mirrors. The benefit of drivers’ education is that the course will teach the driver all of that information. Learning these kinds of things in a drivers’ education course protects the driver by teaching them before the situation happens instead of having the driver learn in the moment. For example, a driver that sees and understands a lane ending sign will know to merge earlier, and with more time to do it safely, than a driver that doesn’t understand the sign. Being prepared for the plethora of unexpected incidents and actions that can happen on the road will reduce the number of accidents that happen, and when the number of accidents decreases the number of fatalities from motor vehicle accidents decreases as well. That is the benefit of drivers’ education courses.

The dangers of the road will affect everyone at one time or another. I’ve been in an accident where luckily no one was injured, and I’ve been in the car with friends who made me legitimately fear for my life, but I believe that the education that I have received about driving safely and being attentive to my surroundings has saved me from several more accidents that could have happened. Being attentive while driving not only prevents the driver from causing accidents, but also protects others from being the recipient of an accident. I am working on being more patient as a driver for safety’s sake, but in the meantime, I know that the knowledge that I gained from driver’s education has been invaluable in my personal protection on the road, and anyone who takes such a course will also become a far safer driver and help to clean up the mass of dangerous, distracted, and inattentive drivers plaguing the roadways.