Select Page

Drivers Ed Online – Safe Driving

Name: Ruoda Moler
From: Hillsboro, OR
Votes: 0

Safe Driving

Drivers ed is important in reducing the number of deaths as a result of distracted driving because it provides a standard education to teen drivers as required by the state. Parents can teach their teens how to physically drive but drivers ed teaches teens safety and many laws that aren’t common knowledge in everyday driving. It also drills in common knowledge that is very important, like not drinking and driving. Drivers ed has also been proven to reduce teen crashes.

Many steps can be taken to reduce the number of deaths. These include not drinking and driving, not texting and driving, not engaging in grooming (makeup, hair, getting dressed, etc…), ensuring that your passengers will help you in not being distracted, not eating/drinking, not listening to music/radio unless you are very experienced, and making sure that you are fully awake and have 100% concentration. While some of these actions seem benign, they take your attention away from driving for just a few seconds-and that’s enough to cause a crash. Anything besides simply driving counts as distracted driving. Distracted driving is dangerous and kills people.

I’ve never been in a car accident or seen people driving irresponsibly but I have been a pedestrian for many, many years. When I was four, my parents and I were crossing a busy road after coming home from the grocery store. It was night time and we were all wearing reflective vests. A car ran the red light and almost hit us. I don’t remember a lot but I do remember the fear in their voices and in how tight their grips were on my hands. I remember it scaring me because my parents have always been very calm. Luckily, a police officer witnessed the entire incident and the driver was ticketed. Since then, my dad-who has walked to work everyday for years-and I have had near misses with cars through no fault of our own. I don’t know what the drivers who have almost hit me we’re doing but I believe that many of them we’re not 100% focused on driving. That’s unacceptable. As a pedestrian, I would feel a lot safer if I knew drivers were not engaging in distracted driving.

Steps that I am currently taking to become a better and safer driver are following all of the rules of the road, following the guidelines for new drivers, and completing the 100 hours of supervised driving with my dad. If I ever see someone driving distracted, I will not hesitate to call them out. I will also make sure I’m never in a car with someone who I think might drive dangerously. Distracted driving kills hundreds of teens and I don’t want to be one of them.