The Importance of Drivers Ed

If
one was to complete any education, drivers ed would be the
most important. A college education is important to get the job you
want with the amount of pay you want with the knowledge you would
need for your job. But all of that is meaningless if you were to die
in a car accident due to disobeying a traffic law that you did not
know about. If more people were to complete drivers ed, the
number of deaths as a result of driving would be reduced. Driver’s
education is one of the most if not the most important education one
can give themself. Not only is it important to complete, but it is
important to retain the knowledge given. Not to mention it is one of
the cheapest and easiest educations to learn about and complete.
Motor vehicle accidents are one of the top ten causes of death in
America. Drivers ed is one step that can be taken in order
to prevent the number of deaths due to car accidents to rise.

There
have been many times where I was put in a scenario where if I had not
completed my drivers ed I would have been severely injured
or dead. One scenario specifically, I could’ve died at the hands of
someone else who did not appear to have much education on how
to drive.

I
was driving myself and an underclassman teammate home from volleyball
practice. Every day we went through the same round-a-bout to get
home. One day I had already entered the round-a-bout and was about to
exit. A semi-truck pulled out without stopping because he had not
yielded to the cars that were already in the round-a-bout. I had to
slam on my breaks to a dead stop, and even then I was still only
inches away from hitting this semi-truck. If I had not stopped for
this semi who broke the yielding traffic rule, I would have had a
head-on collision with his truck. This would have probably totaled my
car, and severely injured me and the teammate I was driving home. I
was so thankful that I had been aware of the truck not stopping, and
the reflexes it took to immediately stop my car dead in its tracks. I
was upset after this incident though. I was worried that this same
scenario would happen again, except I would be replaced with a less
experienced driver who would not stop and would be fatally injured in
this accident. I had the thought that this man should go through some
type of driving course again, or at least be reminded of simple
traffic laws, such as when to yield to other cars.
I have also
seen a lot of fatal accidents due to people not being aware of how to
drive in bad weather. Living in Colorado, it snows and rains a lot in
the fall/winter seasons. In my drivers ed, there were a lot
of tips on how to be a safe driver when the weather seems to be
working against you. This included the tip of not heavily breaking
when your car starts to slide on snow/ice roads. This also included
teaching the driving students how to check the tires on your car to
be sure that the tread was not worn out too much. These tips have
helped me a lot being a young driver in Colorado. Recently I checked
my tires to be sure I was prepared to drive in snow season and
learned that two of my tires needed to be replaced. I replaced my
tires, and now I am prepared to drive with bad road conditions.

There
are three kids in our family including myself. My older brother and
sister did not complete drivers ed but learned to drive
through my parents’ experience. If you compared out driving records
side-by-side, my driving record would be the best as I do not have
any tickets. My older sister has one speeding ticket and has totaled
two cars, and my brother has three speeding tickets and has had two
minor accidents.

I
believe that one step to be a better driver besides driver’s
education is to be constantly aware of your surroundings while
driving. In my scenario, this step was the difference between
crashing and not crashing. Even if other cars are not aware of laws
and of their surroundings, you could save your life, and even theirs
if you are an aware and cautious driver. It is also important to
encourage others to complete drivers ed. If they did
complete drivers ed, this would help them be a safer driver
for themselves, and safer for the people around them.