Importance of Driver Education … It Could Save Your Life

Almost 37,000 people are involved & killed in traffic accidents everyday globally. Everyday 37,000 people lose their lives whether they were a child, a mom, an elderly person, or someone simply minding their business all because of one mistake. Being that traffic injuries are one of the most common ways to die now adays, I believe that driver education needs to be reviewed and revised. Implementing proper driver education can reduce the number of deaths caused by driving tremendously.

According to a study done by University of Nebraska-Lincoln “Teens taking driver education are less likely to be involved in crashes or to receive a traffic violation during their first two years of driving” therefore every teen should be required to take an in person driver’s education course in high school. A lot of schools that do offer driver’s ed. hold the class on a Saturday, have limited spots, needs to be paid for and is not a requirement. This automatically excludes the students who simply cannot afford it, do not want to be at school on a Saturday or solely were not able to get into one of those limited spots. Making this a requirement/legitimate class will then allow every child to have access to proper driver education. I know of plenty of teenagers that were in my high school class that taught themselves how to drive because of these reasons and that is exactly what needs to be avoided. This will allow teenagers to understand driving rather than cheating and taking the test online while unsupervised. Often teenagers think they are invincible and know it all, we have all been there before so providing them with the resources and setting them up to succeed can make all the difference in having people on the roads that know how to drive properly.

In 2017 alone around 7,700 elderly adults, ages 65 and up, were involved in a fatal car accident and more than 257,000 were admitted to an emergency room from injuries related to a motor vehicle crash. Older drivers are more at risk driving on the road vs someone in the age group of 35-54. Therefore, I believe once you turn 65 you should be required to retake your drivers test, not only for their own safety but for the other drivers as well. As you grow older, the human body may not be able to react as fast as they might have been able to when they were 35. Having a late reaction even by a split-second can be the difference between life and death. Along with age also comes impaired vision and loss of cognitive functions such as the ability to remember where they are going or even what a certain street sign means. In a city like Miami a car is necessary to get from point A to point B so not having a driver’s license can be critical but in the year 2020, there are so many other ways to get around town. Vehicle transportation companies such as Uber and Lyft have become extremely popular with a lot more similar apps being developed now. Taxi drivers are still around and not to mention public transportation.

Personally, I have not been involved in a car accident and hope to never be in one, I do believe the reason for that is because I was properly educated on driving before getting behind the wheel. My dad gave me one tip that has stuck with me and always will “never drive for yourself but always for the other drivers on the road,” meaning to always drive defensive and cautious because you know what you want to do or what you are going to do but you never know what the other driver has in mind. A few steps I have taken in trying to become a better driver within the past 3 years is too always have at least a car and a half’s length between me and the driver in front of me, this way you don’t have to mimic everything that driver does. I make sure to put on a playlist of music that I like before I start driving to avoid trying to look through music while driving to change the song. Lastly, leaving my phone on the passenger seat face down helps prevent me from getting distracted from any notifications.