Educate Drivers to Save Lives

What is the importance of driver education in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving? To me the importance of taking driver education is that everyone will learn how to drive safely and correctly. If no one took driver education, then we would basically be driving clueless. In my community many parents do not know how to drive because of cultural barriers. This means they would not be able to teach their kids how to drive. For some people driver education is helpful for fine tuning their driving skills. For many people in my community it is available so kids can learn to drive safely and correctly because their parents can’t teach them. If they did not learn how to drive this would inevitably result in more deaths, because people could be driving recklessly and without the knowledge that they need to drive.

There are many steps that can be taken to prevent deaths while driving, but some people just won’t listen. One step that can reduce the number of deaths each year from driving, is to increase awareness of the fact that it could happen to you. When you never think it could be you, but end up texting and driving, is the exact moment that it will happen to you. I also think that if we had an app that could monitor when we are texting and driving, or would alert a parent, that would be huge. No one wants to get in trouble with their parents especially for texting and driving. Honestly, I really think raising awareness to the problem is something that really needs to happen, because not everyone may know the risks that are taken when texting and driving, driving high, or driving drunk. No one thinks that it could happen to them, but it can happen to anyone.

Have you ever had the experience of being in a car accident or have you seen your friends or family members drive irresponsibly? I have. I was in a car accident before. It happened one of the first times I was driving my new car as a freshman. I live in a small town with a college and it happened right at the beginning of a new semester for that college. I was stopped at a stop sign and another car ran into me at about 30 miles per hour. This is 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. He totaled my car. It turns out it all happened because he was new to the town and didn’t realize that there was a stop sign. He also happened to be looking down to unwrap his burrito from a local Mexican restaurant. Another experience I had with a friend was when he had to drop his friend off at home. On the way back he decided it would be fun to go 80 miles per hour on an icy gravel road. I am very lucky that he is still alive as he rolled his car into a ditch with minimal injury to himself. Another experience with car accidents that affected me happened when a friend from a school about 10 minutes away died in a car accident. His girlfriend had broken up with him that night and he still had a 10 minute drive home. He was driving fast and without a seatbelt when he lost control. He drove into the ditch, hit a pole and then a tree and died because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. His funeral was a week ago.

There are several steps that I can personally take to be safer on the road. One is to be aware of my surroundings and not get distracted. I realize that I am not a perfect person and need to be more conscious of when I reach for my phone to change the music I am playing. I always have music on while I am driving because it is important to me, but it’s more important to drive safely. If I get an important text, I still need to realize that my safety is more important than any text message. No matter who it’s from. I think I can help others become safer drivers by telling about my friends’ stories and my own experiences. I can tell others that safety matters. The last thing I would want is to have a tragedy like the one I experienced a few weeks ago. Safety matters and I want to make a difference in the world by promoting safe driving every day!