Two Thumbs Up for Driver’s Ed

The skills I have learned in driver’s education have saved my life and the lives of hundreds of others. One afternoon, I was driving to work on the highway, when a swivel chair fell off the back of the truck in front of me and flew towards me. Thankfully, I was leaving a safe following distance in the event that something as unexpected as a swivel chair flying towards me occurs. Therefore, I was able to see the event, react in time, and move into the passing lane to avoid the debris. Leaving a safe following distance was one of the most critical defensive driving skills that I learned in Driver’s Education.

A common misconception of driver’s education is that most of the skills learned are common sense. Although this is true for many of the skills taught, such as stopping at a stop sign, this is disproved by the amount of people on the road not practicing said “common sense” techniques. For example, many people turn without signaling and do not use the leftmost lane solely for passing.

While common sense is helpful when driving, I am incredibly grateful for the skills taught beyond common sense that make me a safer driver. These include predicting other drivers’ behavior, how to drive in poor weather, and what to do when faced with an unsafe driver on the road.

. Preparing for the unforeseen is a crucial way to prevent driving-related deaths, as so many fatal accidents are associated with blizzards, torrential downpours, and thunderstorms. Another life saving skill that I learned was to make my driving predictable to others, which creates one less unforeseen event on the road. A University of Nebraska study confirmed my personal anecdotal findings, in that it had found that drivers who took Driver’s Education had significantly fewer accidents and tickets compared to those that did not. This did not surprise me at all and explained well why Driver’s Education is mandatory in the vast majority of states within the United States.

Another important way to prevent driving related deaths is to reduce alcohol-related deaths. One of the greatest ways to prevent deaths related to drunk driving is to promote harm-reduction strategies when people are drinking. These include parties designating drivers, people preparing to take public transportation if they are drinking, and bartenders stepping up and calling cabs for clients who are unsafe to drive. It is also important for societies to destigmatize asking friends and family members for rides if they are in a situation where they do not have a safe ride home.

Many parents, including my own, have established the “X” system, where their child can text them the letter “X” along with their location, so that the parents know to call them with a fake emergency and get their child out of the situation, with no questions asked after. In addition, my university has a ride service Thursday through Sunday, where students can call for a free ride anywhere on the Island of Montreal. Systems such as these make it so people do not have to jeopardize their safety to avoid driving drunk, thereby jeopardizing their safety in another. A constructive method to improve Driver’s Education would be to teach driving students how to reach out for help if they are in an event where they feel unsafe driving home.

Like alcohol, a lack of sleep can also impair judgment, leading to critical accidents. A study by the AAA Foundation demonstrated that getting under five hours per sleep a night quadrupled the risk of a crash occurring. This is especially valuable to raise awareness for, particularly in occupations where sleep deprivation is a common part of the job or where night shifts are frequent. In medicine, resident physicians frequently work for twenty four hours consecutively, often without breaks, and are then expected to drive home after their shift. At this level of sleep deprivation, a cognitive study found that their cognition level is the equivalent to being drunk. This lowered ability to make decisions, paired with the danger of falling asleep at the wheel, creates a dangerous recipe for accidents. A way to prevent that would be to follow the same harm reduction strategies for sleep deprived people that we follow for alcohol. Additionally, it is crucial that employers allow employees to take breaks during extended shifts and that people make a conscious effort to get the full amount of sleep required to drive safely.

To prevent driving deaths, it is also imperative to prevent distracting driving. Since I was two years old, my family has been in multiple car accidents due to other drivers using their phones while driving. Distracted driving has been increasingly prevalent, particularly since newer cars began integrating with cell phones, so that people can choose playlists, make calls, and “read texts” while driving. To prevent distracted driving for myself, I keep my phone on “do not disturb while driving” so that I do not hear or feel any distracting notifications from my phone. I frequently see distracted driving in my family, especially regarding phones. For example, both of my parents will take calls while driving. I have noticed that this causes them to neglect their driving, making mistakes including forgetting directions to places that they regularly attend and forgetting turn signals. These mistakes sharply increase the risk for crashes, as they lower the driver’s predictability and cause them to focus on things other than the road. Thankfully, I have learned to evade distracted, drunk, and sleep-deprived driving and have practiced the skills that I have learned in Driver’s Education to become the driver that I am today.