Just Drive

Carly Fisher

Drivers ed
Initiative Award

3/24/20

Drivers
education has proven to reduce the number of crashes that happen with
young drivers. Programs that consist of a longer permit phase,
reduced passengers, more practice time, and earlier curfew lowers the
amount of teen crashes. An effective program includes more parental
involvement with the young driver. There are many steps that can help
teenagers improve and enhance safe driving skills. I know that for
every mile teens drive, they are four times more likely to be
involved in a crash. Teenagers need safety implemented in their lives
because the risk of driving is very dangerous. The main goal is for
every state to pass graduated drivers license laws to save more teen
drivers. A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration indicates that inattention causes 68 percent of the
rear-end crashes, there are nearly six crashes per minute and 10,000
deaths per year. With the high amount of crashes the damages cost
approximately $40 billion dollars per year.

My
parents have always taught me the importance of driving with no
distractions. I thought it was a simple rule to follow and that
everyone followed this rule. I had to find out the hard way that not
everyone drives with no distractions, and from my experience I never
drive while distracted. I was seventeen years old and it seemed like
a normal day, I had just dropped off my brother at baseball practice
and I was driving home. I remember being stopped at a stop sign and
there were probably three or four cars ahead of me. I then felt my
car start to move and I had to immediately slam harder on the brakes.
At first I was confused and didn’t realize what had just happened,
then a lady came to my window and asked if I was okay. I got out of
the car and saw that my bumper was completely off of my car and you
could see exactly where she had hit my car. The reason she had hit me
was because she was distracted, she was looking and adjusting her
dog’s collar. My car ended up being totaled because of how fast she
was going and the impact her car had made on mine.

This
experience has taught me that I need to always pay attention and be
safe when driving because this accident opened my eyes to the thought
that I could have been hurt from it. I think that everyone needs to
be aware of how serious driving is and that it shouldn’t be taken
for granted. Phones are the main distraction of driving as well as
having other people in the car. The reason I got rear ended was
because the lady was looking at her dog, something that I never
thought could be a distraction while driving. This proves that even
though it may not be a common distraction of driving it can still
cause you to be distracted.