The Importance of Driver Education

Drivers have become varied in age, ranging from inexperienced teenagers to 90 year old race car drivers.With each driver comes a set of maturity of skills: fresh, experienced, and reckless. Now, it may not be every driver’s ability to handle a car well enough to roam the streets safely. For this reason, deaths have increased faster than a speeder on the interstate. Although there are many accidents on the road, driver education in America is still lacking. This is due to the fact that most people do not know how to drive properly. And the people that do know, aren’t driving legally. And that is where the importance of driver’s ed comes in.

Driver’s education has evolved into 2 subdivisions: face-to-face and online. According to statistics, the number of drivers who have completed a face-to-face course in the last twelve months is up from one million in 2005. While the number of online driver’s Ed courses has increased by more than fifty percent since 2004, this growth is not without its challenges. For example, there are many factors that affect the success of a driver’s Ed online course, such as distraction towards other things not included in the course and cheating with the help of other sites due to the fact that there is no supervisor. For this reason, new driver’s haven’t learned anything and are somewhat confused on the skill of the road.

Deaths are increasing and perhaps will always continue to increase…unless we do something about it. Driver’s Ed has done little effect on society, there is no point in taking it if people will continue to drive recklessly. It’s like asking for a cheese burger with no cheese – just ask for a hamburger! Driver’s Ed should have an update of regulations. These regulations would make the courses more secure, less boring, and more interactive so that students can focus more thoroughly. Sure, education isn’t meant to be fun, but tell that to the people who have lost their souls to the dangers of the highway. I am not saying that driver’s education should be changed completely, it is just that it needs to be adjusted a little.

The number one cause of deaths while driving: the cell phone. Forget about your cell phone. That is one of the most significant (and simplest) things you will do to change the safety of you, the passengers, and others on the road. According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, surveys have demonstrated that using your cell phone while driving — even when it’s a hands-free cell phone — is like driving drunk. Scary, right? This means if you truly want to reduce the risk, it’s best to abstain from texting while driving.

The closest thing to reckless driving was when I was taking a ride with a friend. It was clear he was nervous with me in the car, but I told him not to worry, I trusted him. Because that is what friends are for, right? So, as he started the car and left the parking lot and got on the highway, I noticed that his hands were starting to shake. Then, I started to shake. He must have noticed that I started to get nervous, so his nervousness increased. He tried to back out and started for an exit, but we got stuck in the middle cars. I told him to calm down, but he didn’t and the car started to veer out of the lane and got dangerously close to the car next to us. I had no choice but to slap, because that seems to always work in the movies. Unfortunately, it did not and seem to have made it worse. He got made and tried to hit me but he accidentally turned the car hard and we almost crashed into a ravine. We pulled over, took a break, and continued on our way. I haven’t rode with him no more ever since that incident, but we are still good friends.

From personal experiences and federal statistics to common sense, one can see that each individual person has a unique ability to maneuver a car whether on a busy highway or on a quiet side street. Like I said, there are multiple sets of maturity skills that a driver has: fresh, experienced, and the most widely known, the reckless. So driver education has its important reasons and those are the reasons why most drivers are still alive.