The Importance of Drivers Education

The Importance of Drivers Education

By: Kayla Hawkins

All teenagers at the age of fifteen get excited when their birthday approaches and they finally turn sixteen. You’re a year older closer to adulthood and now you are finally eligible for taking your permit test and receiving your license six months later. Imagining you with your license and a car being able to drive and go places with your friends to the mall for example can certainly get exciting. However, it is proven that teenagers whether they are first time drivers or have been driving for two years are the most dangerous and hazardous people on the road. When driving, teenagers tend to engage in risky behaviors such as speeding, racing, blasting music while driving, and have too many people in the car which causes distractions and focus away from the road. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2010 alone, 282,000 teenagers were injured in a car accident while 2,700 were killed. How can this be prevented?

Enrolling your child in Drivers Ed can play a big role in preventing inexperienced drivers from being involved in car accidents. In some cases, learning how to operate a vehicle can be intimidating to teenagers sometimes. Having a teenager complete a drivers ed course can ensure you that your child will learn the ways of the road, what to do and what not to do when behind the wheel, and how to operate their motor vehicle. These courses will also teach new drivers what to do if there is an emergency, what the signs of the road mean, the consequences of speeding or drinking and driving will lead to, and any other law or piece of information that should be known about driving. Simply enrolling new drivers in drivers ed is the first step in protecting our new drivers from horrific accidents. Educating new drivers with all the information that needs to be known when driving plays a big factor in reducing the number of accidents and deaths that teens get in every year and will keep them safe. 

I have never personally been in a car accident but I have witnessed one. One accident I had witnessed happened a few feet behind my car. I was sitting at the light and the driver behind me kept going straight when taking a bend in the road and hit the sidewalk which actually ended up flipping her car upside down and hitting the pole. The driver was injured but I later found out that she was driving drunk. After finding out that she was driving drunk, it only made me think of how she could have hit my car and injured me. Steps that I know I can take to become a better driver and help others become better drivers as well is by remembering and following information that I was taught when taking drivers ed and educating others so they can be informed as well.