Name: Brandon Kunz
From: Greenfield, WI
Votes: 0
A car was waiting for the traffic light to turn green when out of
nowhere it was rear-ended by a young driver going 45 MPH – this
driver was texting and didn’t see the car stopped ahead. This is a
very real and serious issue with drivers today, and this incident was
close to home – the driver was in my high school class. Thankfully
this situation only ended up with damage to vehicles and nobody was
seriously injured, but it helps bring home the importance of driving
safe with no distractions. Drivers ed focuses on driving
responsibly and assuring that people are aware of road conditions,
how to properly read signs, and what to watch out for in a variety of
traffic conditions. This accident was not caused by any of these, but
simply by negligence of the driver by not paying attention.
From my
experience with Drivers ed, I learned how to properly
navigate the roads in a safe manner, and these skills have taught me
how to react to the changing traffic conditions. I think there would
be beneficial to having some type of driving simulator to help with
the distracted driving conditions, such as answering the phone or
trying to text or use social media while behind the wheel. An
impactful simulator could have student drivers attempt to do these
activities while navigating the normal road conditions to see what
the level of success is versus driving while not distracted. I
believe most new drivers go into this new adventure with the attitude
that ‘it won’t happen to me’ or possibly that they can handle
driving situations while distracted. A little more focus on this area
could go a long way in prevention of what are now common accidents
today.
Aside from
leveraging the Drivers ed experience, having more awareness
in the hands of the parents and guardians that are teaching new
drivers could also have a significant impact. Much like school, the
teacher can only get so far with the student – the rest is learned
from outside sources with parents being one of the primary factors.
I’ve had my
license for nearly two years now, and the experience I had in
Drivers ed has been invaluable. In my short time behind the
wheel I’ve been in many bad traffic situations; angry drivers with
road rage, people fixing makeup while driving, and the worst –
people texting and driving. I’ve had to make quite a few emergency
maneuvers to avoid an accident due to the driving habits of others.
Drivers ed reinforced the core skills necessary to
successfully stay safe in these types of situations.
With the
education offered in Drivers ed, coupled with reinforcement
of safe driving stemming from parents, I strongly believe that most
accidents can (and should) be avoided. Had my classmate paid more
attention to the dangers of texting and driving, the accident would
have never happened.
