Driving Is Not That Easy

Windows rolled down, a breeze flowed through your hair, and music blasted through speakers as your friends and you sang at the top of your lungs to the Taylor Swift song on the radio. This is the dream you thought, driving your car with all your friends while you sang your favorite songs. Every teenager looked forward to this dream as they near the age of 16, getting to be in a car with their friends as they drove endlessly. Whether it’s illegal to have more than one passenger in their car at that age didn’t matter; their only worry was not getting caught. But what happened when you, the driver, turned around to laugh at your friend’s joke, and you didn’t see the person crossing the road in front of your car. You turned back around, and just as the vehicle was about to hit the person, you panicked, stepped on the brakes, and attempted to swerve the car in another direction to avoid hitting the person on the crosswalk. While you were able do that, in your attempt to save the person on the crosswalk, you hit your car into a nearby pole. You noted that the music was still playing, but the laughter from your friends stopped. The car was filled with silence, and as you looked around, you saw your car destroyed; the six other friends you packed in your car wailed silently in pain; and you saw touches of blood everywhere. How did I get here, you think? You just wanted to have a good time with your friends; how could you have looked away from the road for the one-second cause of this mess?

While I have only been driving for a year and a half, I have been lucky enough never to have been involved in a car wreck; however, that is not necessarily true for all my peers. I’ve had friends who have found themselves in unfortunate scenarios and have caught themselves in car wrecks after irresponsibly speeding on a local road, texting while driving, or doing various activities rather than solely focusing on driving. This behavior is typical of drivers of all ages, primarily because of how comfortable people get while driving. While being comfortable behind the wheel is good, it’s equally important for drivers to stay alert while driving, devote their senses to what’s happening on the road, and not distract themselves.

Statistics from Davis, Saperstein, and Salomon Law show that those aged 16–19 are four times more likely to die in a car wreck than adults. With time, these statistics seem to get more alarming than in previous years, and the rate at which teenagers die in car wrecks is increasing. Actions can be taken to prevent these numbers from growing, and one of these actions relates to improved driver education.

Driver education is a course everyone should take to better understand the fundamentals of driving before beginning to drive. Many schools offer this course for students to take in high school. However, not all schools make this course mandatory for students to take. While many potential student drivers are eager to take this course, making it mandatory for students can help increase the reach of the knowledge shared in this course regarding driving fundamentals and safety. To build off of this point, making the driving education course mandatory not only helps increase the number of people familiar with driving rules, but it also helps keep students motivated to learn and thrive in driving education as they are assessed for the content they are retaining and how the course works towards their grade point average (GPA), thus hopefully reducing the number of car wrecks that involve teenagers. To continue, driver education refresher courses should be mandated for drivers of all ages so that drivers can be updated with new laws and regulations and learn new and improved ways to stay safe on the road.

In addition, many steps can be taken to reduce the number of driving-related deaths. One of these steps includes reducing the number of passengers allowed in a teenager’s car when they are driving. While this is a rule implemented in many states throughout the United States, it’s a rule that is often not taken seriously or ignored by many teenage drivers. To improve the implementation of this law, sensors can be implemented in adolescent drivers’ cars to ensure that they are driving an approved amount of people in their vehicles, which the parents of teenage drivers can monitor. Another step that can be implemented to reduce teenage car crashes is speed reduction, or a speed limit to which a student driver’s car can drive. Cars, such as Teslas, have a feature in which a speed limit can be selected through a mobile app, and when the driver comes within 5 miles of their set speed limit, their parent gets a notification on their phone. This idea should be implemented in other cars and car brands, as high speeds are a common reason teenagers get into car wrecks.

As a driver myself, to become better at driving, I need to gain more driving experience. Meaning I need to always drive in new territories and areas, strengthening my ability to adapt so that I can be better prepared for emergency driving situations. To be a safer driver, I can restrict the number of friends or people that ride with me while I’m driving to prevent myself from getting distracted and hurting someone. To motivate others to become safer drivers, I believe that more should be done to bring further awareness to teenagers and the prominent role they play in car accidents. This alone can make people more cautious on the road when driving. In addition, I believe that technology can help make drivers safer at their jobs. For instance, many cars have sensors that make loud noises when their hands are off the wheel or when their eyes divert from the road. The technology incorporated in today’s cars can help drivers stay focused while driving and hopefully reduce the number of accidents that stem from distracted driving.

Driving is a privilege that is enjoyed by many. As new drivers, it becomes easy for teenagers to misuse their freedom and drive irresponsibly. Still, with increased awareness and the use of technology, it is possible to keep teenagers focused while driving to prevent car wrecks. In addition, mandated driving education courses in school and mandated continued driving education can help keep drivers updated with new laws and regulations while consistently learning how to be safe drivers on the road.