The Importance of Driving Safety and My Experience

Matthew Diaz

7/28/20

The Importance of Driving Safety and My Experience

Driving safety is the most important aspect of a drivers ed because it teaches new drivers about the rules of the road and gives people a basic understanding of how to operate a car to ensure the safety of not only themselves, but everyone on the road. However, that does not stop some drivers from doing irresponsible things such as, texting while driving, being under the influence, or not wearing a seatbelt. These are problems that I have seen friends and family do on many occasions, and I believe the best solution is to educate drivers on how dangerous these habits can be. We could implement a lesson on how suddenly things can change for the worse while driving, educating new drivers on what you need to observe when driving and how quickly a safe drive can result in a fatal accident. Students could learn this lesson by having the instructor simulate a distracted driver behind the wheel and have the student get the driver to focus on the road, or have the instructor pretend to be a new driver and have the student instruct them on the proper procedures and rules of the road. Both examples can help teach new drivers the risks of distracted driving and show that driving requires your full attention.

As a high school student, I have been a passenger of irresponsible drivers. In one instance, I had to carpool with friends to get to a choir performance and we had about 45 minutes to get there and we were an hour away. We were speeding through traffic on the highway trying to get there on time, while I knew the driver was experienced, I still had anxiety about the situation and I was constantly thinking about what could happen or how easy it would be to get into an accident at that speed and the stress of being late did not help my anxiety either.

I do take it upon myself to help the driver not be distracted, if they are about to get their phone out and start texting, I take their phone and text for them; I ask them to slow down if I do not feel safe or if they want to get directions I will pull out my phone and get the location. When I drive, I will make sure my phone is in a place that I cannot reach while driving and if I have a passenger, I will ask them to get directions or if there is a message on my phone I will ask them to read it for me. If we all know the risks that we take when we are distracted while driving, we can all have a better understanding of what might happen if you check that text or do not have a designated driver. If understand these risks then we can make the road safer for everyone around us.