Be Safe on the Road!

As a senior in Lyndon B. Johnson high school, I have learned that success is based on responsibility, discipline, smart decisions, and learning to manage my time in the most efficient way possible. These life lessons have helped me into becoming an honor NHS student with a 3.6 GPA. 

The importance of driver education is huge because it teaches people how to drive safely and how to defend themselves depending on the situation. Knowing how to drive safely and how to react in different circumstances can reduce the number of deaths by a lot. Furthermore, driver education can build safe driving habits for people instead of risky driving habits. People who have gone through driver education, they reduce the amount of crash risk when drivers are in their most vulnerable state. When states require an extensive amount of training in driving, they result in much less accidents. Most deadly crashes result from speeding, distractions, impairment, and poor-hazard recognition. Driver education targets all of those specifically by teaching risk perception, defensive driving, safe decision making, and awareness of distraction risks. It is most important for drivers to go through driver education when they are new drivers because it is their first year on the road. When teens and new drivers go through driver education programs they receive structured instructions then relying on only practice. They enter the road with stronger skills, better judgement, and a clearer understanding of the consequences of risky driving. 

There are multiple steps that can be taken in consideration to reduce the number of deaths related to driving. One of those is strengthening driver education programs because structured training is more valuable than only practice hours and the instructors can build safer habits instead of risky habits of driving better than when someone is on their own or taught through a parent. When going through a driver education program, the new driver gets more behind the wheel hours with certified instructors, defensive driving modules, and a use of simulators to fix risky driving behavior. Another step to reduce the number of deaths related to driving is adding more driving laws. More laws towards driving can be adding restrictions on nighttime driving, passenger limits for new drivers, and no alcohol while driving policies. States with more driving laws have a lower crash rate among new drivers than states without as many. Furthermore, engineering can also be used as another step of reducing the amount of deaths towards driving. Engineers can install guard rails and roundabouts where needed, improve lighting on rural and suburban roads, and maintain the road surfaces. Safer roads, safer cars, and safer drivers can decrease the number of deaths towards driving.

I personally have been in three accidents, two minors, one major. The first one was when I went over the curb a little. Thankfully, the curb did not damage my car in any way. The second one was when I was parking in a tight spot between a car and some posts that were protecting a sign from being run over. Those posts took some paint off my car and bent the slides a little but not too much. In my third accident, I was trying to find a place to park and when I went to turn, I didn’t turn all the way so I went into reverse to back up. I thought I put my car into reverse, but didn't and ended up hitting a friend’s truck rear lights. I broke their lights while they had a steel bumper and it messed up my front car because I have a small car. I have not been in an accident since almost a year and I feel much more aware on the road than I have ever before.

The steps I have now taken since my last accident is to be more patient and not to rush myself. If I see a small opening on the road then I ask myself can I make it, if its a maybe then I dont take it, if its a yes then I take it. Another thing that I do is I am looking in all my windows much more so I can be more aware of what is happening around me. Before, I had my phone on vibrate and in my pocket, and whenever I felt it vibrate I either felt the urge to take it out or I did take it out, now I put it in the cuphold so now I don't feel it and I’m not tempted to even look at it. Doing all of these things have made me a much better driver than I ever was before my accidents.