Education and Awareness: A Critical Component of Driving

Driver
Education Initiative 2020: In the Driver’s Seat

“Education
and Awareness: A Critical Component of Driving”

It’s
every parent’s dread. A late-night phone call, the ensuing
nightmarish blur, the seemingly endless questions. Car accidents are
no small problem and, unfortunately, they aren’t a fleeting issue.
Every year, tens of thousands of people lose their lives in car
accidents. This issue is so prevalent because of several factors, one
of which being a lack of proper drivers ed. If more people
were to be fully educated on the rules of the road (as well as common
everyday knowledge) the number of accidents would greatly decrease.
The importance of drivers ed is undeniable; the level of
education correlates to a person’s skill as a driver. The more
educated they are, the more skilled they are likely to be on the
road.

One
possible solution to decrease the amount of car-accident related
fatalities would be to require every person to retake their license
test whenever they needed to renew their license. That way, the DMV
could ensure each person is up to date on the rules of the road and
is still a safe and effective driver. Another step that could be
taken is a more seriously enforced nationwide rule against the use of
cell phones while driving. In the case of a personal emergency,
someone should be required to pull over and handle their business
while parked. So many people get easily distracted by their phones.
People come up with all sorts of justifications for getting on their
phones: “I’m
at a red light, I can take a moment to scroll through my social media
feed!”
Or “I’ve
been driving for a while now, it’s ok if I carry out this
text-conversation because I know what I’m doing.” The
truth is, nothing is so urgent that it should distract your full
attention from the road ahead of you.

Very
recently, my sister got in a car accident. She was lucky enough to
make it out injury-free, and she was not at fault, but the car was
declared a total loss and it caused her a lot of stress and anxiety.
She had been slowing to merge onto the highway and the man behind her
failed to pay attention and continued to accelerate, eventually
slamming right into her and pushing her car forward 50 feet (and
almost into oncoming traffic!) Had the man been an educated and
efficient driver, the accident could have been avoided altogether!

Education
is a portion of the solution, but another big part of the issue is
lack of SA. SA is a term my Dad likes to use a lot—it stands for
“situational awareness”. Not enough people are situationally
aware. It’s too easy to get wrapped up in everything going on in
your head and tune the world out around you. When people zone out,
they slip up on common sense, resulting in reckless driving and
accidents. To do my part, I need to ensure I am practicing SA (as
well as encouraging others to!)