Defensive Driving and Avoiding Distractions: Two Pillars of Driving Education

Surviving on the road is essential for every new driver. The leading cause of death among teenagers is “unintentional accidents,” which makes up about 48% of all deaths of teenagers. Within this, 73% of these deaths are from “motor vehicle accidents.”¹ This means that the majority of deaths of teenagers occur in motor vehicle accidents. By educating students better on the risks of driving, we can reduce this number dramatically.

Helping students understand how to drive defensively, that is, to avoid accidents, will enable them to be safer and better educated drivers. Defensive driving is simply increasing awareness of what is going on around you and noting ways to escape an accident in one’s current situation. For example, if someone were to cut you off on the highway, is the lane next to you open to move into? This increased awareness will aid students in avoiding dangerous situations and therefore prevent deadly accidents.

When I got into my first, and only, car accident, a man in a truck rear ended me while texting and driving. As someone who refuses to text and drive, this has fueled my anger against it even more. My family understands now that if I am in the car with them, I will happily send their texts for them because I know that they could end up like the man in the truck.

To be a safer driver, I know I need to continue to refuse to text and drive and encourage my friends and family to do the same. This encouragement will prevent more accidents for people of all ages, including teenagers. Some other areas to improve on for people who are my age are toggling music, talking to friends, and eating or drinking. All three of these are distractions that I know have caused me to lose focus on the road before. I hope to remind myself that my friends understand that I need to focus while driving to keep everyone in the car safe, and, when I have someone else in the car with me, they can help me toggle music. In addition to this, I need to eat before I get in the car, rather than during my drive to school, because this will keep me from driving on an empty stomach, which is not a good idea, and keep me focused on the road.

In short, the most frequent cause of death in teenagers is car accidents, so drivers ed is necessary to enable students to better protect themselves and those they care about from becoming another statistic. Working on avoiding distractions while driving is something everyone needs to work on. Generally speaking, drivers ed will increase the number of safe drivers on the road, benefitting every driver. Driving accidents are preventable, and the best method of prevention is protecting young drivers by teaching them how to stay focused and avoid accidents.