In Person Driver’s Education

Delali Ekpeh

01 October 2020

In Person Driver’s Education

With car related deaths on the rise in the United States, driver education is crucial for all upcoming generations. From bad driving norms such as reckless endangerment, speeding and distracted driving, there needs to be an in person driver’s course that steers the youth towards safer, proactive driving.

Steps we can take to reduce the number of deaths, resulting from car accidents, is to make face to face driver education mandatory before teens can receive a learner’s permit. Online Drivers Ed should be reserved for special circumstances only. As newsroom.unl.edu states: “Teens taking driver education are less likely to be involved in crashes or to receive a traffic violation during the first two year of driving”. Having said that, there is already a significant increase in the safety of driving in young adults; thus, making face to face Drivers Ed mandatory would lead to even more immense results in the future.

During high school I took a four-month in person Drivers Ed course with other students that lead to me earning my learners permit and driver’s license. Since then, car accident have not been exhibited in my presence, I have not received any traffic violations, and have had no car issues because of the lifelong skills I was taught at Drivers Ed. Most of the time, teenagers when they take Drivers Ed online don’t take the course seriously and cheat on their final assessment test. Consequently, they find themselves in tough situations. For example, my friend was speeding in the rain and his car, which was an older model, hydroplaned and swerved into another car. Fortunately, no one was hurt but my friend had to get another car and enroll into driving school again. If he attended the in person course he would have learned about tire traction in the rain and better prepare himself for that situation.

Another step we can take to diminish car related fatalities is to make the driver’s test a little harder and the class more affordable. This way more people would have better access to in person Drivers Ed classes, as some could cost up to $250 .In addition, with harder tests, people would take the class more seriously and ensure that only the smart, mindful drivers are on the road. It’s like becoming a medical doctor; you have other people’s lives in your hands; so you have to go through a rigorous training course to obtain your degree and to make sure you’re not putting people’s lives at risk.

Furthermore, things I can do to become a better, safer driver in my community are to have more patience and to be more aware while I drive. Florida is seen to have the most car accidents compared to all the other states and it all comes down to just taking your time and assessing the situation while you drive. Doing this you can figure out whether a driver is new or having issues with his/her car and reduce common accidents. This in turn, would create safer roads and safer drivers. Therefore, if there is going to be any decline in the number of accidents then we should focus our efforts on each upcoming generation. Since habits are hard to break in adults, we can instill good driving habits to each and every teen in America.