Driver’s Safety

I have known so many high school students that have gotten in a bad car accident that caused their car to be totaled. The accidents weren’t their fault either. Society blames teenagers for so many accidents that happen. Even though we have the strictest drivers ed programs in the world. The United States doesn’t allow a teenager to have more than 1 person in their car for their first year of driving. No other country does this. So why does society blame us? We are the easiest to put blame on because we are innocent. Anyone can say that the “new generation” is terrible at driving, but we might be better because of the rigorous program we have to go through to get our license.

I personally lost a friend to a car accident due to an adult who was careless and not paying attention. During this time, I was going through driver’s education myself and they took the time to teach us about how that accident could have been avoided if the other driver was driving the way we are now taught to drive. I think the new program that schools have put in place has helped prevent teenage accidents because of the precautions they take after teaching you how to drive. Like I mentioned above You are only allowed to drive one person at a time who is not a family member to help you focus on the car for your first year of driving. Another precaution they take is the amount of practice hours you have to take with a guardian in the car with you. All these precautions go hand and hand with each other so that you feel confident behind the wheel. One of the most important things about driving is that you feel confident in your driving skills and know how to react fast. We are taught not only how to drive but how to watch for other drivers around you. Many accidents are not teenagers’ fault, it is people who have gotten too comfortable with driving and end up making a mistake that causes injuries or a loss of life.

The largest distraction when driving is technology and other people in your vehicle. Technology is such a huge interference with driving, 28% of accidents are caused by texting and driving. This is something that can easily be stopped if people were taught just how dangerous it could be, which is now what is being taught in schools all around the country. Another main factor of accidents that cause death are drunk driving accidents. The drunk driving mortality rate is 52% and the majority of that is college students. Now colleges have started a campus only uber so that those numbers go down. That is a great way for students to get home safely without the fear of getting in trouble. Overall, there are many precautions that have been put in place to help young drivers and young adults have a safe experience with driving. Young drivers should keep any distractions away from them when driving. For example, set up your music before you begin driving and set your device to the side so that you are not tempted to grab your phone while driving. Another thing to set up before driving is the volume of your music, if your music is too loud it can also distract you and cause you to lose focus on what you are doing. Lastly, you should make sure any passengers in your vehicle are going to keep their voices down and prevent any thing that could distract you.

After taking my driver’s education course I started noticing differences between what I was taught at school compared to how my parents taught me how to drive. Very simple things like stopping at a stop sign or picking up their phones while driving it has shown me how quickly something can happen. When you take your eyes off the road it increases your chances to not only losing control of the vehicle but also risking every life in the car. Anyone could get into a serious accident, but there are many different things you could do that decrease your risk. Such as not texting while driving. Many people take this saying for granted, but it really can help. Another one is wearing your seatbelt, the saying “click it or ticket” may also be taken for granted by many people, but not wearing your seatbelt could cause you more harm if you got into a car accident. Everyone should follow the guided safety rules that they teach us in drivers’ education so that there are less fatal accidents in the world.