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Driver Education Round 3 – Driver’s Education Eminence

Name: Alicia Vigil
From: Albuquerque, NM
Votes: 0

Driver’s Education Eminence

As a future teacher, education of any kind holds great importance in my heart, but I believe this type of education is something we can all agree on. There are many things society disagrees on, but I could not name a single person who would disagree that driving education is important. There are many rules to the road that you cannot just assume, and one can be driving for many years until they learn a new rule. For many reasons, we must educate people extensively before they get behind the wheel of a 2,000-pound metal death machine.

I was fortunate enough to take driver’s education at my high school for free, but it did not include practice driving with my permit. Because of this, I had to practice driving with my parents; my parents are not bad drivers at all but they themselves never had any type of formal driver’s education. This became apparent to me when I was taken to do my driving test and I was barely given a passing grade. My driving instructor told me several rules of the road that I had simply never learned. Luckily, I was given my driver’s license on the promise that I would learn from what she had told me. When I got into the car with my dad, I asked him why he never taught me to turn into the closest lane or signal my blinker in a parking lot; he told me he didn’t know these were rules. As funny as I find this story, it makes me realize that driver’s ed is so important! Yes, you can wait until you’re 18, skip the classes and just pass the driving and written test, but my experience shows that there are rules to the road that are not inherently known! Not only this, but we also learn the importance of not driving while intoxicated, tired or distracted.

In my driver’s ed class we watched multiple videos of true stories from people who drove drunk and killed someone, who was texting while driving and hit a dog or was tired and fell asleep and drove off a cliff. These things are so scary to think about and often gives me anxiety on the road. I could be doing everything right but if someone else happens to run a red light then boom, my car is totaled. This actually happened to me senior year of high school. I was driving home from the DMV and when I drove through the intersection right by my house, some guy decides to run a red light and I run right into him, as I had absolutely no time to break. I was in shock; I immediately turned my car off and walked to the sidewalk. The man who hit me then comes running out of his car yelling at me that I hit him. I was still speechless. This man ran a red light, causing me to total my first car, and he was mad at me! His passenger was apologizing to me profusely while strangers were yelling at him to back off from the crying 17-year-old girl. I have a feeling this guy never took a driver’s ed class in his life!

From the time I first sat behind the wheel I have felt as though I am very prepared for anything that may happen on the road. I am attentive and defensive. If I do everything right on the road then I will never get hurt. Unfortunately, this just isn’t true. Everyday, I assume, I drive by someone who has never taken a driving class or maybe not even their license! This gives me major driving anxiety, but I must remember that the only thing I can do is ensure I am doing the right thing. I only wish that everyone on the road was prepared with the proper education and skills to be safe on the road. I have always had this theory that 100% of accidents are preventable because if you look at accidents that happen it’s from mistakes! Someone ran a stop sign, someone cut another driver off, a drunk driver, someone texting and driver, it all feels so preventable. Unfortunately, I had a cousin die from a drunk driving accident so these simple mistakes anger me quite a bit. Driving education coupled with driver’s caring more would benefit the road greatly. All my experiences combined have instilled the importance of driver’s education in me. I have always prided myself in being a good driver, especially since most of my friends are not so great. I am grateful to have taken driver’s education for free and I pray that all driving adults will have had some type of driver’s education in their life.