The Song is Called Highway to Hell for a Reason, Folks: The Importance of Drivers ed

The Song is called Highway
to Hell for a Reason, Folks:

The Importance of Drivers
Education by Cailyn Carscadden

Writing
your G1 once you turn sixteen years old is almost considered a rite
of passage in many high schools across Ontario. In my suburban small
town, nestled in between many big cities in the Greater Toronto Area,
getting your G1 is often the first time any of us will get behind the
wheel of any vehicle since we likely won’t get the opportunity to
drive farm equipment. Learning to drive for the first time is, for
the most part, where teenagers finally start to feel like they’re
becoming adults, and it is the responsibility of adults to teach them
the rules and responsibilities of this role, starting first and
foremost with the road. Drivers ed has the potential to both
change and save lives, and by following the rules and lessons taught
during drivers ed, accidents and other collisions, as well as death,
can be avoided. Drivers ed plays a vital role in the lives of
teenagers by teaching them the rules and responsibilities of the road
that they will use for the rest of their lives, ultimately preventing
serious injury, physical handicap, and death.

As
soon as I passed my G2 test, my parents refused to let me drive
either of their cars until I had insurance. The problem with this was
that I needed to visit the ministry of transportation to receive a
document confirming that I had completed drivers ed. There is
a reason that this deductible exists – a study done in Nebraska shows
that crash rates for teens that had taken a drivers ed
course were 11.1%, while those that hadn’t had crash rates of
12.9%. While this number may not seem like much, when put into
perspective, out of every 1000 teens that take a drivers ed
course, 111 will crash, and for the same size group of teens that did
not take a drivers ed course 129 will crash. That’s 18
more crashes per 1000 people for teens that do not take a driver’s
education course. While the term crash can be used loosely – as in
anything from a small fender bender to completely totaling your
vehicle in what my mom would call a yard sale – crashes still involve
deaths. Auto accidents are the leading cause of death for those aged
15 – 20, and most of these can largely be prevented by participating
in drivers ed. In Ontario, we get a simulated experience of
distracted driving, as well as a full day of classes dedicated to
preventing reckless habits such as speeding and distracted driving.
Drivers ed does as much as possible to reduce the risk of
crashes altogether by forcing teens to understand the gravity of the
choice to drive recklessly.

Of
course, there will always be exceptions to statistics. I am no
stranger to car crashes, namely my single small fender bender after a
turn I didn’t straighten out of, landing me in a ditch and part of
the way into a tree that resulted in my mom dishing out $2000 to
replace the front bumper of her Tahoe. The crash that I experienced
had one of the smallest chances of producing injury or fatality,
given that I was going at about 15 km/h and all I did was knock over
a small tree (may it rest in peace). Some of the stories I’ve heard
and seen from my peers are much more chilling though. In January a
classmate of mine rear-ended someone in front of our school after he
didn’t brake early enough for the conditions, and according to his
sisters, he’s always had a habit of braking at the last minute. I
have many friends who will go to icy parking lots and dirt roads to
go drifting and spin donuts. I know someone who once drove to go and
smoke weed with some friends and then drove himself and everybody
else back to his house from where they had met entirely in reverse
and while under the influence of marijuana, because he claimed that
being high made him “drive better”.Everybody from this group had
taken drivers ed. Even my parents, who speed between 10 and
30 km over the legal limit every day and encourage me to ignore
posted limits took drivers ed. While we can never truly
prevent these things from happening, what we can do is attempt to
encourage them to happen in the safest conditions possible, which are
somewhat taught in drivers ed. Only speed to pass in the left lane.
Observe and pay attention to the other cars on the road. Don’t
drive while under the influence. The fact of the matter is, most of
these reckless driving behaviours were not as bad as they could be
because of drivers ed. My parents only drive in the left
lane so they can speed. Teens are not drifting in the middle of the
freeway or any other major roadway within towns and cities because it
may hurt other drivers, and they are not drinking and getting high
while driving during times of high traffic because it may hurt other
drivers. There will always be a few bad apples within a group of
people, and the job of drivers ed is to reduce this amount as much as
possible by providing the education needed to show teens why they
need to be serious and responsible about operating a vehicle.

That
being said, the rest of us good apples know how to demonstrate good
behaviour on the road. The number one causes of crashes are speeding,
distracted driving, and driving while under the influence. To prevent
crashes while I am driving, I pay attention to local limits and drive
with the speed of the traffic. While this action does sometimes
involve speeding If I am at the beginning or the end of a line of
cars I get to set my own pace, and I typically do not exceed 10 km
over the limit at any given time. Additionally, I keep a large
cushioning distance between me and the other cars around me, and I
only pass if necessary to give me lots of room to move or get out of
the way in case a crash happens in front, behind, or beside me. I am
constantly monitoring my mirrors and the cars or road ahead of me,
which means that I do not have enough time or focus to check my phone
while I am driving. The same notifications will be there when I
arrive at my destination. I don’t drive when I am upset or feeling
unwell unless I absolutely have to, which will keep my mind on the
road. Overall I am not a huge part of the party scene, but when I do
happen to drink, which is incredibly rare, I call my parents for a
ride or I stay over, even when I don’t feel drunk. These so-called
“precautionary measures” are what were taught to me in my
drivers ed class as simple rules and responsibilities of the road,
as something that I had to do, not something that was optional or
only to be marked down as a good idea. These types of behaviours are
often overlooked by parents when they teach their children to drive.

The
fact of the matter is that if you haven’t dedicated your career to
teaching teens how to drive, education about distracted driving,
reckless driving, and driving under the influence is often
overlooked. Parents don’t think they need to spend a day teaching
their children that they can under no circumstances, drink and drive,
look at their phones, or stunt drive because they assume it comes to
us as common sense. Clearly though, statistics and stories passed
from friend group to friend group show that it does not. You wouldn’t
trust your financial advisor to perform your open-heart surgery, so
why are we trusting our parents, whatever their profession may be, to
teach us their tricks and hacks to navigating the worlds road system
rather than trained and certified professionals who have been
teaching teens to drive for years?