The Importance of Driver’s Education

Here is a wild statistic- almost 70% of accidents are caused by sober drivers, which says a lot about the ability to drive among citizens in the United States. This is despite a publicly offered class, required by many states, taught by a trained professional to educate drivers.

Learning to drive is a necessary skill for the modern world. Driver’s education is important in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving. One of the most important skills driver’s education teaches students is “hazard anticipation”, something most new drivers lack. In the words of Donald L. Fisher, the director of the Arbella Insurance Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “Novice drivers are clueless, not careless”. Driver’s education is geared towards teenagers, and it has aided in reducing the amount of teenage driving deaths over the past 50 years. Driving is inherently dangerous, but if new drivers learn how to safely handle risky situations, the number of deaths should, at least in theory, decrease. Overall, driver’s education can be important to reducing the number of fatalities because it teaches people, specifically impressionable teenagers, how to drive safely.

Even though driving is inherently dangerous, there are steps that can be taken by drivers to reduce the number of deaths related to driving. The first and most basic step is to obey traffic laws, which exist to protect drivers. Some examples of these laws are speed limits, staying in one’s own lane, turn signal usage, and obeying street signs and stop lights. Following these laws greatly reduces the chance that one would get into an accident. Another step one could take to reduce accidents would be to stay off devices while driving. Distracted driving killed 3,142 people in the US in 2019. A number of states have taken it upon themselves to decrease this number, so in many states it is illegal to drive and operate a hand-held phone at the same time. Even though almost 70% of accidents are caused by sober drivers, the chances of getting into or causing an accident is much higher when the driver is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, legal or not. When drunk, a person’s reaction time, depth perception, and understanding of others actions is decreased. This creates the perfect recipe for a crash. The simple solution to this is to not drink and then drive, even if one’s blood alcohol content is below the legal limit. There is no shame in hailing a cab or calling for an Uber while intoxicated. That is one of the many purposes of this new wave of transportation apps, such as Uber or Lyft. It is much safer this way, not only for the person intoxicated but for others as well.

I’ve never personally had the experience of being in an accident, or at least nothing major. Last winter, an older gentleman in a 2019 navy blue Subaru Outback accused me of bumping his back bumper, when in reality I had just gotten really close and his car moved back into mine while we were in traffic. There was no damage to either of our cars. However, some of my friends have gotten into accidents. Two summers ago my friend totaled her car by driving into a ditch and hitting a tree on the way home from practice. She was going too fast and wasn’t paying attention to the curve of the road when she veered off the highway and crashed into the ditch. Thankfully, neither her nor her 4 passengers were injured, but the car was not so lucky. Worse, she could have learned from others’ mistakes, as two years before that her older brother was going 90 miles per hour while drag racing in the suburbs and crashed into a house. My takeaway from both of these experiences is that distracted driving or showing off while driving is incredibly dangerous and could have dire results, and that I shouldn’t take a ride from that family.

Something else I see my peers and adults do, and I myself am guilty of it too, is being on a smartphone while driving. It seems that distracted driving is all too common despite being incredibly dangerous. That is something I could work on to be a better and safer driver. Another step I could take is to watch my speed. I am guilty of sometimes going five to ten miles per hour over the speed limit when I am on my way to school, practice, or the gym. Lastly, I can also take better care of my car through maintenance to be safer on the road. The quality of the car doesn’t just affect the driver, it affects everybody. If the car has bad brakes, it is a hazard if it is unable to stop fast enough to avoid a collision.

Safe driving is something just about everybody in America can work on. From enrolling new drivers into driver’s education, to following traffic laws, staying off devices while driving, we can all make our roads a safer place.

Works Cited

“Fatality Facts 2019Teenagers.” IIHS, https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/teenagers. Accessed 26 November 2021.

“Impaired Driving: Get the Facts | Motor Vehicle Safety.” CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html. Accessed 26 November 2021.

SABATINI, JEFF. “Does Driver Education Make Our Roads Safer? – Feature –.” Car and Driver, 12 April 2016, https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15101313/does-driver-education-make-our-roads-safer-feature/. Accessed 26 November 2021.

“6 Ways to Avoid a Car Accident.” Consumer Reports, 4 April 2015, https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/04/6-ways-to-avoid-a-car-accident/index.htm. Accessed 26 November 2021.