To educate the drivers of education

To put it simply, if negligence is the main reason more people die by driving as opposed to by live combat (which is stated by the very website I’m reading these questions from), then we need to prioritize the understanding of driving- and/or cars with far more protection for all they interact with. Education should help with reducing the negligence of drivers (which is one of the main factors to car crashes, as it is a human who is in charge of driving the cars) at least to a degree.

Getting a driver’s education, although not directly training one with the skill needed to tackle the dangers of the road, would make one hold more insight and awareness as to how roads work and the rules that everyone follows on them- and this would allow them to realize and predict the ordinary movement of cars on the road. Not to mention, that education is a valuable way of learning where an average citizen with average intelligence would drive their cars, without needing to first experience misfortune; education is one of the safest ways to protect oneself against the average citizen’s cars, with reduced risk.

In “A Driver Education Campaign to Increase Bicyclist Safety and Awareness”, by Katherine Dutt (and others), shows a case study which hopes that education using analytics of crashes and injury will reduce driving related deaths. They educated young drivers in high schools with a focus on teaching them bike laws and regulations so that said drivers may become more aware of bikers on the road. This case study did make an impact, but a very small one, as it wasn’t exactly a long term implementation within the schools they tested on, and only affected the schools within their region (A Driver Education 14).

High school education, with the present held in which car manufacturers ensure that their cars are as safe as feasibly possible for the common person, and with high school being a necessity in order to attain multiple jobs and register for college, seems to still be a very valuable way for students to put great effort into understanding driver safety through tests and grades. But high school driver education isn’t the sole factor that would “solve” driving related deaths, nor is it necessarily a perfect solution. In 1930’s America, there was a primary focus on educating the youths how to drive better as opposed to simply having safer cars, simply punishing bad drivers as opposed to reflecting upon the car itself (How effective 61). Car companies even believed that teaching young adults how to drive was so important that they lended cars to schools in hopes of students getting practice in (How effective 62), but this somewhat backfired.

Although there were indeed many schools which taught students about the road and gave them ample practice, an additional problem that arose lay in the minimum age requirement, which were quite low at the time, in the range of 14-17 years of age from at least 1904 – 1921 (How effective 62). It is stated that high school students heavily seek out the ability to attain a car, for it “is a rite of passage that enables them to become a productive member of society and more importantly, this passage provides them the opportunity to drive to and from work and for recreational purposes” (Traffic safety programs 3).

Although it is not a problem for young adults to desire cars, it becomes a problem that their minds are not fully matured, and even if some hold effective judgment by those ages, others can still be reckless and brash. As of 2014, CDC stated that it was “the leading cause of injury and death for teens” (Traffic safety programs 3).

High school education is a pretty strong incentive for young adults to learn how to safely work around cars, but there lies two problems in making driving classes so far. If you teach freshmen of car education, while their brains are not as mature as they possibly could, even if they can get money and be responsible citizens, they can also put themselves in grave danger by attempting to buy a car too early in their lives. But if you only teach seniors of car education, then the younger students will not be able to learn about driver education, which also puts their lives at risk. If one ever wanted to educate the high schoolers, it may be wise to hold two different classes, with one dedicated to teaching all high schoolers about safety when walking around drivers, and the other teaching seniors (only) how to drive. This lets high schoolers learn about the safety aspects of driving as early as possible while letting them avoid driving, at least up until their brains are as mature as one could in high school- in senior years.

One time, after a week of not seeing my family in a while, I came with my mom and sister to a pho restaurant to grab some food and chat. After our normal greetings and small banter, my sister told us that while driving on a rainy day to get to work, she went a bit fast to get into work, and when taking a turn, her car completely tumbled over once or twice, or even three times. Luckily she didn’t get any serious injuries, but there was a small chance that in the week I didn’t see my sister, I would be hearing about her death without being able to say a single thing to her before she passed. I had no phone at the time, nor was she living with us at the time. It was a truly eye opening experience.

I do not have a driver’s license, but I am aiming to obtain a driver’s license by next summer. First and foremost, I need to simply study for a driver’s license. Next, and in any way I am able to find out how, I need to become aware of the common sense of the road and become acquainted with it, or more preferably logic that doesn’t work around common sense. Even if laws can be taught to everyone, the inebriated will not follow them, and for one reason or another, a driver can become unconscious. Perhaps by going slower when crossing corners, or simply distancing my own car from other cars just to ensure that they won’t accidentally make a mistake that I will suffer for. Though this is coming from someone who’s never driven, so there is no way I can guarantee that this logic is sound and reasonable to follow.