Name: Colin K Blake
From: Beaverton, Oregon
Votes: 0
It
all starts somewhere. For some, their driveway, others their
neighborhood, and I the Tektronix parking lot. All different starting
points that follow the same goal. Drive as well as possible.
Unfortunately this is easier said than done due to a number of
factors including but not limited to attention span, cell phone use,
other teenage passengers and so on and so forth. This essay will
explore the importance of drivers ed in reducing deaths, steps
taken to reduce deaths and what I can do to help not just myself but
others become safer drivers on the road.
To
start off, let’s review teenagers and drivers ed. Teenagers
are more likely prone to car accidents on the road due to
impulsiveness and overall recklessness. However this can be combated
with proper education and information so much so that according to
the University of Nebraska, “A new study that followed more than
150,000 teen drivers over eight years has found that driver’s
education significantly reduces crashes and traffic violations among
new drivers.” The article continues, “Young drivers who have not
completed drivers education are 75 percent more likely to get a
traffic ticket, 24 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal or
injury accident and 16 percent more likely to have an accident, the
study showed.” The article finishes off this segment with this
sentence and statistics, “During their first year of driving, the
group who took drivers ed had significantly fewer accidents and
traffic tickets than the group that logged driving hours without
formal driving instruction.
>
11.1 percent of the drivers education cohort was involved in a car
crash, compared to 12.9 percent of those who did not take driver’s
education.
>
2.1 percent of the drivers education group was involved in an
accident that caused injury or death, compared to 2.6 percent of
those who did not take drivers education.
>
10.4 percent of students who took drivers education was ticketed for
moving traffic violations, compared to 18.3 percent of those who did
not take drivers education.
>
Similar trends were seen for alcohol-related violations and for
crashes and traffic violations during the second year of driving.”.
Clearly, proper education of use of a vehicle pays off.
Fortunately
death prevention does not stop here. A many number of obvious yet
vital choices can help prevent a fatal accident. These include a
drivers ed course, neglect of one’s cellphone while driving,
using the turn signal, eliminating other distractions such as
exceptionally loud music, passengers causing distractions and not
being preoccupied with anything else. This combined with the simple
blind spot check can help prevent many accidents. The reason I bring
up blind spot checks is specifically for cyclists. I hail from
Portland, Oregon, a very cyclist friendly city that is fairly well
known for the activity. Checking your blind spots and not just your
mirrors allows you to check for a bicyclist in your blind spot while
you are turning thus allowing you to prevent a collision between your
four-thousand pound vehicle and the cyclist’s 20 pound carbon fiber
bike frame.
Nonetheless
the expertise on the road doesn’t stop with you as other people can
learn to prevent accidents too! What I’m getting at is that while
you may drive near perfectly sometimes this cannot make up for
someone else’s error. Specifically, car accidents. I have the
unfortunate experience of being in a car accident with a semi-truck
while entering a two-lane roundabout. As I entered, the truck driver
did too without putting on his four ways. While his cab remained in
the right lane his truck bed entered the left lane of the roundabout
and into my hood, fender, and headlight. While I had entered the
roundabout without and cross traffic, used my turn signal, and made a
blind spot check this still didn’t prevent an accident. Sure, I
should’ve just let the semi driver go through on his own but one’s
awareness of their own vehicle’s dimensions may also prevent an
accident. It’s small details like this that make a significant
difference.
Overall,
you can make a big difference on the road by driving well. With the
use and combination of techniques such as blind spot checks,
signaling, quickly yet safely merging on the freeway as well as
taking a drivers ed course you can not only save money on
car insurance but more importantly prevent deaths of people while
driving and help make the roads in your town a safer place!
