Driver Education Initiative – In the Driver’s Seat

In
the Driver’s seat

Part 1: Why is
education for drivers important? And how should steps be taken to
make driving safer?

Education is probably one of the most important parts of driving a
car. I mean, imagine if everyone was permitted to use/operate a
vehicle with little to no training. I can almost guarantee that the
death statistics as seen on the application website would be tripled
or even quadrupled. Now, I could spend half this essay talking about
said statistics and how we need to do something about it, but it
would seem that’s been done to death. So instead, lets talk about
driving education. Most high schools nowadays have some sort of
drivers ed course, and these courses give very important and
meaningful information on the risks and dangers of driving. These
courses also go over how you should not text and drive, how driving
under the influence is extremely bad, and how you should take the
necessary precautions to stay safe in the event of a crash, such as
seatbelts. Despite the training required to get a license and the
information learned from drivers ed courses, people my age still do
stupid things like drunk driving, texting while driving, and other
risky moves. Why? They know the risks, they know the consequences, so
why do it? Even after all that training? Do they just not care? Do
they not realize what harm they could do to themselves and others? If
this is the case, what can we do to make driving safer with teens who
seem to just not care about what might happen to them?

Well, maybe we just need to reevaluate our method of teaching. Maybe
we need to focus less on how they could harm themselves, and instead
on how it harms others. Most teen’s are not able to see long term
consequences after all. When we tell them that if they don’t buckle
up, drive safe, and drink responsibly than they could face disaster,
they just don’t see the picture. They are not able to process what
the actions of today could mean for the rest of their lives. You know
what’s easier to picture? The death of someone else. It happens all
the time, teens who get into a car crash and its their fault. They
were drinking. Or they wanted to check their phones. Although what
happened was an accident, it still happened. And nothing can change
that. Maybe the other driver was injured, or even killed. Nobody
wants to live with that.

Maybe its time to start teaching kids that their actions don’t just
affect themselves, but others around them. Of course, some teens
still won’t see the picture and will still make stupid choices. But
at least we could do them the favor of warning them of what could
happen beyond damage to themselves. I believe if we adjusted drivers
ed programs to show the severity of people’s actions, and how they
affected others, we would see a more drastic decrease in driving
deaths among teens.

Part 2: How
has driving affected me? And how can we as drivers be safer on the
road?

If I’m being honest, I have not had many experiences with car
accidents. There was one time where my Dad was in a crash, but it was
not too severe. It did hurt his neck a bit though, but that healed up
pretty good. The rest of my crash experiences have been simple bumper
hits or rear ends. However, that does not mean that I don’t care
about driving safety. Even though I have not had some sort of super
traumatic experience in a car, I deeply care about driving safety. I
never use my phone while driving, I don’t drive under the
influence, and I put my seatbelt on. Heck, I even passed my drivers
test first try! I have always been able to understand just how
useful, but also dangerous, these vehicles can be in the right hands.

So, I guess driving has made me become more aware of others. The main
reason why I make sure that I always follow these laws is because I
don’t want to hurt someone else and I don’t want to be
responsible for the death of another person. I have heard stories of
other people who have had to deal with that burden, and I don’t
want to be one of those people who must carry that with them the rest
of their lives. So, I guess that the best way we can be safer on the
road is to remember three things. One, you are not the only person on
the road. This goes both ways, so you need to be courteous of others
and remember that not everyone is going to be courteous back to you.
Two, follow. Road. Safety. Laws. I can’t stress how important this
is. Ten miles over the speed limit is still illegal, and more
importantly, dangerous to you and others. And finally, three.
Remember that your actions do in fact have consequences. You may be
able to deal with an injury from a car crash, but what about someone
else? Why should they have to suffer because you decided to do
something stupid?

To conclude, there are areas we could improve in our driving
education that would be more effective at reducing deaths by motor
vehicles. Not only that, but we need to learn to remember we are not
the only ones on the road, and that you deciding to drive drunk that
one time could lead to serious consequences later. Thank you for
listening.