The importance of Drivers ed for the youth

Driving
is one of the biggest aspects of American culture. We see it in the
movies; when the sixteen-year-old getting his license and drives off,
ready to explore the world. We adore NASCAR and the Indy 500 — one
of the biggest events in the nation. Despite these tropes and big
events, we don’t often think about the safety of our actions while
behind the wheel. There are few things more important than educating
the upcoming youth on the importance of safe driving practices, and
to not make the mistakes some current drivers make. Distracted
driving, for instance, is one of the biggest problems in America.
Most notably, texting while driving has become a major issue in newer
drivers, along with other things such as speeding and driving under
the influence. We need to instruct teenagers on this and show them
the consequences of these actions. We need to change the mindset
that, texting and driving, no matter how often or what they perceive
the risk to be, bad things can happen. The steps needed are to update
the videos used in drivers ed. When I went through my
drivers ed course, the instructional videos were outdated.
These outdated videos create a disconnect when the students are
seeing people in them talk about problems from 15-20 years ago. With
the outdated videos, students don’t take the message as seriously
as someone our age reinforcing it. The risks of texting and
distracted driving need to be talked about it more in schools. I
don’t remember many, or any, teachers talking about this issue
during my time in high school. I think it would help to have
educators and role models discuss these problems, and warn about the
dangers so students will see them as a more pressing issue, rather
than just a warning of a possibility. I was in a car accident when I
was a kid and had someone crash into my parked car: both due to
distracted driving. Luckily, there were no serious injuries or
damages, but it’s been a wake-up call for when people I know are
driving dangerously. I’ve ridden with people that will go 10-15 mph
over the speed limit in residential areas, or take it to 70-80 mph
out on US40 during a busy hour without care. While speeding, they’re
looking at their phone FaceTiming or Snapchatting, and they don’t
think twice while they’re doing it. I wouldn’t say I’m the
perfect driver, and there are times I mess up because I’m a
teenager and it happens. The only thing you can truly do to make a
change is to monitor yourself and your friends, watch their, and your
actions and remember them. You have to be able to call them out when
they’re being irresponsible and have them do the same for you. We
all need to work on changing these bad habits so that mothers never
see their child’s picture on the six O’clock news because they were
driving distracted.