An Ignored Epidemic: New Drivers’ Alarming Accident Rate and Driver Education as a Solution

For many new drivers, drivers education appears as an impossible obstacle to surmount, a tedious stretch of hours upon hours reading convoluted regulations and watching disturbing films of gory car accidents. To be frank, I fell into this same reluctant mindset while learning to drive in California, which required a 30-hour drivers education course with topics as obscure as passing horse-drawn carriages on highways. Though laws about school bus safety and driving in the snow seemed irrelevant to my future driving in Los Angeles, I’ve come to realize the importance of a broad drivers education in promoting public safety and ultimately reducing the number of driver, passenger, and pedestrian deaths.

Comprehensive driver education, from instilling general safety to teaching specific regulations, is proven to reduce total accidents and consequently deaths, especially among teen drivers. According to studies sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, young drivers are 24% more likely to be involved in a fatal or injury accident if they have not completed driver education. Insurance companies’ policies corroborate this fact – car insurance providers offer discounts to young drivers if they complete additional drivers education, implying that the total pecuniary damage caused by driving unsafely also decreases with additional education. Despite the outsized benefit driver education has on car safety, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a trend away from safe licensing practices. During the pandemic, Wisconsin and Mississippi waived new drivers’ road test requirements, allowing parents to vouch for their child’s safety on the road, forgoing any official government certification. Driving safety experts are concerned about these developments, stating that “for safety’s sake, when it comes to our most vulnerable and crash-prone drivers, removing any guardrails around their licensure is ill-advised” (Maureen Vogel, spokesperson for the National Safety Council). Clearly, both drivers education and road tests are vital to ensuring our roads are the safest possible.

Considering America’s dearth of adequate driver education and certification, it is no surprise that many young drivers, myself included, have been victims of irresponsible driving. The Safe Roads Alliance reports that a whopping 43% of first-year drivers are involved in car accidents – that’s an unacceptably high proportion and a statistic that would make many parents wary of unleashing their new teen drivers on the road. In the midst of before-school rush hour traffic, I myself have been rear-ended by another high school student who was too caught up in the chaotic scene to drive responsibly. My school is located along a major street with 5 separate schools within a block of each other, split apart by a complex and disorienting freeway entrance and exit. Consequently, in mornings around 8am, the roads are completely overrun by students’ and parents’ cars rushing in and out of school parking lots and drive-throughs. I harbor no ill will towards the student who rear-ended me; being stranded in the middle of crowded intersections due to other drivers’ mistakes somewhat justifies his erratic behavior. More extensive driving education would undoubtedly remind drivers to wait on one side of the intersection until the other side is clear, preventing this kind of accident from occurring in the future.

Fortunately, this minor bump has been the extent of my direct experiences with irresponsible driving, though my time in Los Angeles has given me no shortage of frightening driving experiences to report. Though we are fortunate enough here to rarely struggle with poor driving conditions, this means that many Angeleno drivers are inadequately equipped to drive in the rain. Especially in a city as choked with traffic as Los Angeles, where topography limits freeway width to two measly lanes at times, I strongly believe that driver education focused on safe driving in traffic is essential. Another vital part of getting around in Los Angeles is being able to drive on our omnipresent web of freeways, yet freeway driving is not even a part of our behind-the-wheel exam. Making these reforms to driver education and certification in California, where traffic and freeway driving are acute and specific issues, would indubitably improve road safety and driving experience here.

Knowing the exceptionally high risk of accident and death for new drivers, particularly those without driver education and certification, I am especially appreciative that my native California has instituted quite strict licensure requirements. I will continue to remember the content of my driver education, heed the local regulations, and drive defensively to maximize my safety and the safety of other drivers and pedestrians around me. And though my behind-the-wheel training was primarily targeted towards driving conditions in California, I will ensure that upon moving to different locations with climates, I will continue to educate myself on the necessary safe driving practices of my new community.