What We Can Do to Save Lives

What We Can Do to Save Lives

As controversial as it sounds, everyone who is driving a vehicle, is operating a two-ton weapon. It only makes sense to train and be knowledgeable in every aspect of using it responsibly, as it is for a soldier to train and prepare for combat. Educating individuals in achieving more than getting from point A to point B is the key role driver education plays in saving lives every year. It is too important to be left for every driver to figure out by themselves, as statistics indicate.

To reduce deaths related to driving, laws and regulations are necessary, but driver education has the power of giving us conscience and spreading awareness. An educated driver knows beyond the basics of safe driving, such as using the seat belt, adjusting the rear view mirrors, and not driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Strategies of spatial awareness and positioning for reacting to unexpected conditions, and understanding the driver’s responsibilities toward other people, are some of the topics that everyone who wants to hold a license should be required to be educated on regularly. Completing courses in such education and demonstrating competence should be mandatory for new and experienced drivers alike as a requirement for getting a new licence or a renewal.

Where I live, driver education is self-directed. Unfortunately, this is the case for many people. We are required to know and comply with the law, but learning strategies and techniques to do so safely and the reasons behind the regulations that exist are skills that many people learn through trial and error. Everyone I know has learned this way. And though my parents have been diligent in teaching me to show respect for myself and others through safe driving, they themselves learned through trial and error.

We, as a society, can do much better. But how? The government can sponsor programs and train teachers and professors in high schools and colleges, which have the space, educational equipment, and facilities that they already use for providing quality education. They can provide education to any driver, new and experienced, and do so with the knowledge in teaching that these institutions already excel at. We do not need to reinvent the wheel, but we need to take actions to make driver education a requirement, to improve the quality of education and, in turn, improve the decisions drivers make.

The responsibility of driver education should be shared by everyone and having access to it should be easy. In the age of communication, we have the advantage to have access to a variety of resources on the internet. Additionally, I take responsibility for my own education and encourage my friends and other drivers to do the same so we can cause a greater impact. By asking questions, watching videos, researching strategies and techniques from experts, asking for advice from family members who have been driving for many years, and offering guidance to others, we can increase the progress of driving education, and therefore, decrease accidents and deaths.