Driver Education

Driving education has provided a number of youth with the harsh reality of what could happen when not driving responsibly. Those courses have not only proven themselves to be significant by bringing awareness of what is truly at risk every time you get behind the wheel, but also makes you reflect on your personal driving.

Reckless driving and distracted driving have been two major factors for the high numbers of fatalities and injuries in young drivers. As a novice driver, I personally think that strategies to see a reduction of deaths should be social media sensors, car sensors, personal driver checks, and more interactive lessons on being a responsible driver. The social media sensors would shutdown the drivers ability to attempt to scroll and put others on the road at risk. The car sensors would provide an alarm alert that would go off until it senses that the driver’s eyes are back on the road. The interactive educational lessons we receive need to be updated to fit the current times, and provide us with hands-on lessons to demonstrate just how dangerous driving on the roadway recklessly can be.

I have personally been in multiple accidents— none too severe, but nevertheless eye opening. In one instance, it was not even my family’s fault, but rather the teenager that was driving behind us. He was roughly around the age of 17, driving well above the speed limit, while texting and driving. His car collided with my mother’s rear and caused the entire car to jerk forward. The accident required us to receive therapy from the impact. I was shocked that the young man was daring enough to pick up his phone while driving. But his recklessness could have injured himself, his brother, and my family more if we were not lucky.

There are a number of steps that can be taken to reduce the amount of accidents, but I really am a huge advocate for education for protection. I believe that creating programs that will engage my age group can at least make a novice driver think about their actions before taking them. After education, I believe that social media sites should have settings that can shut down their app until the driver is out of their car— thus preventing many of the causes driving accidents. There are many steps that could be in place to reduce driving deaths, but they all start with awareness from everyone.