How Can we Improve Driver Education

Every year an average of 34,000 people are killed due to car accidents. This number is more than the total American soldiers who died from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The total for two years is more than the American soldiers who died as a result of the Vietnam war. A way to help reduce this staggering number is to improve our driver education system. Driver education is so important, to everyone, because it can teach all drivers what a responsibility we have when getting behind that wheel. Many teenagers count down the days to when they can receive their driver’s license. Most times the knowledge of the responsibility is overshadowed by the excitement they are experiencing. The focus is usually on their new gained freedom and not how serious driving is. Today new drivers have so many distractions that we did not have just a decade or two ago. Distractions that are not limited to only the increase of cell phone usage. There are other factors that contribute to accidents. If we can redirect more focus on the importance of driver education, we may be able to reduce these accidents.

There are some steps we can take to try and reduce this number by way of driver education. In high school, driver education needs to be expanded. Some schools split the school year with only one semester focusing on driving. Teaching the things needed to be able to pass their driver license test. Instead, it may help to expand this to an entire school year, possibly occurring in the previous year so that it will not interfere with teens ready to apply for their license. Class lessons could be more geared towards how teens actually act in a car. Instead of just teaching in a straight forward way of how to operate the vehicle and road signs, etc., there could be lessons on what to do when a friend is trying to face-time the driver while driving. Lessons that give real life scenarios and how to handle them. Many teens do not understand a consequence through explanation alone, sometimes they need to see the consequential outcome to their mistakes. A driver simulator could be beneficial to practice some of the real life scenarios, things like; a phone ringing, a dog or child running out into the road, a car malfunction light coming on, etc. Also, seeing a vehicle that has been in an accident is impactful. Not seeing it on a video, but actually going to see the wreckage. Having accident survivors speak to a school on their experience could also help bring the message of how serious driving is.

I was in a car accident when I was a fairly new driver. I was in the eleventh grade. It was a clear, sunny day, a day that should have been perfect for driving. I looked down for a brief moment and when I looked up, my car was in the oncoming traffic lane. I panicked, of course, and jerked my wheel to get in my proper lane. When I did that, my right front wheel caught the side of the road where the pavement dips down, resulting in pulling my car off the road some. I then continued panicking and overcorrected my wheel again. This made my car veer off the road; I then flipped my car down a short embankment and then rolled it. This ended me in a cow field, scared to death. I totaled my first car, had a separated shoulder (that is still separated today) and multiple cuts and scrapes. One blessing was having my seatbelt on. A wooden fence railing came through my front windshield. If I had not been wearing my seatbelt, the railing could possibly have went through my head. When my car stopped, the railing was coming through my car, right beside my face. I experienced all of this because I looked down for a second and allowed myself to be distracted.

Now as a mother of two, one of whom is preparing to receive her learners at the end of the year, I see driving totally different. I see all of the dangers of driving, envisioning what can lead to an accident. Every day is a driving lesson in my car. I am always talking to my girls trying to teach them early the things that are not taught in a classroom. When I see another driver do something wrong or dangerous, I point that out to my children. I try to talk about defensive driving techniques and making sure to always focus on driving. Another lesson I try to teach is that driving is a privilege, not a right. At any time that I feel my child is not taking driving seriously, I have explained, I will take that license and hold it. My hope is that I have taught them to do the right thing when I’m not around.