Safe Driving is a Habit Worth Making

Safe Driving is a Habit Worth Making

According to the CDC, the risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teenage drivers than any other age group. Teenagers are three times more likely per mile to be involved in a fatal accident than drivers over the age of twenty. An average of seven teens die and hundreds are injured every day in the United States, and the risk of a crash is especially high in the first few months after a teen gets his or her license. Causes of these crashes can include driver inexperience as well as driving with other teenagers, nighttime driving, distracted driving, reckless driving, or impaired driving. For the last few decades, many states have questioned the need for a driver’s education requirement. However, a recent study by researchers at the University of Nebraska showed that teenage drivers who have not completed a driver’s education course are sixteen percent more likely to get into a car wreck and twenty-four percent more likely to have a fatal car accident!

It follows that driver’s education can help reduce fatal accidents involving teens because it teaches state traffic laws and helps new drivers learn actual driving skills. This not only helps inexperienced drivers avoid accidents by knowing the driving rules, but it also helps drivers to understand how to negotiate a potential accident into a less serious one. Driver’s education also discourages high risk behaviors such as distracted driving, hoping to show teens the importance of taking driving seriously.

My brother was involved in a car accident where his truck overturned on the shoulder of the road. When the car in front of him stopped abruptly to make a turn, he tried to avoid hitting it by swerving off the road. His tires lost traction, and the truck flipped. He was following the car in front of him too closely in rainy conditions, and was afraid that he would slide and hit the car if he slammed on his brakes. If he had maintained more distance between vehicles, he would have had time to stop safely on the road even if the car in front of him stopped quickly. Luckily, he was not injured at all.

My mom was involved in a much more serious car accident last year. A young person pulled out in front of her during rush hour traffic, causing her to glance off of that vehicle into oncoming traffic and hit another car head-on. She was in the hospital for twenty days, and suffered ten broken bones, including a crushed nose and a burst fracture in her back. She missed seven months of work and is still in pain ever day. The young person who pulled in front of her was distracted, looking at his cell phone instead of the traffic when he pulled out onto the road.

I am a much slower driver than my brother, and I always leave with plenty of time so that I am not rushed when driving. I drive defensively, paying attention to other drivers and allowing plenty of space between my vehicle and others. My car only has two seats, and I try to make a habit to meet my friends in town rather than have them ride with me. I don’t drive my car in rainy conditions, and I limit my night-time driving. I close my phone in my console and set the phone to “driving” so that I am not tempted to text or talk while controlling my vehicle. I remind my family members to pay attention if they ever get distracted for any reason, because this is the leading cause of car accidents

I have seen firsthand what the inexperience and poor decisions of teenagers can do. My brother walked away from his accident unharmed, but my mom almost died or was paralyzed for life. The thing is – you can’t control which outcome you will get when you are involved in a car accident, and this risk is not work taking! This is the reason that I try to make safe driving a priority. Programs like driver’s education are essential because they help to increase the safety consciousness of every driver on the road, right from the beginning of their driving career. This protects the safety of both the young driver and every other driver on the road.