In the United States, people are allowed behind the wheel at as young as 15 years old. The human brain doesn’t fully develop until the mid or late 20s. The. Decisions we make in our younger years are heavily based on the information that we are consistently drilled on until it sticks. Driving education is very important in preventing deaths caused by driving as it gives every individual who operates a vehicle an even playing field. The typical drivers license process in America consists of taking a written test. If passed, you receive a drivers permit, which allows you to drive on any road within the state with one licensed driver over the age of eighteen and one other passenger. No actual driving instruction course is required to receive a permit. Most of the licensed drivers these teenagers are put on the road with include parents who have had years of driving experience; however, they are not instructors. They have developed their own styles of driving, which may not always be the correct way. In Kentucky, an online course is required to get a full driver’s license. You sit and watch a few videos where they attempt to scare you out of driving recklessly with gruesome stories of people who experienced life altering accidents. These courses can be educational in explaining the importance of safety to a new driver. However, they offer no hands-on experience with a professional. During the physical driving test right before you are able to get a full license, a test proctor directs the driver through an empty parking lot and asks them to do a series of turns, stops, and parking positions. There preliminary tests don’t really give a driver the knowledge and experience they need to be safe on the road. A better system may include required drivers’ education classes in school, as well as hands on experience with a professional instructor on real roadways.
One step we can take to reduce deaths caused by driving is creating deeper consequences for texting while driving. The main cause of car accidents in the US is cellphone usage. Cell phones cause 6x the amount of car accidents as driving under the influence.
Any time I am in the car with my mom driving, I have to ask her to remove herself from her phone multiple times. I’ll ask her what could be so important on her phone that it’s worth her life and she always seems offended with her responses. There are iPhone games that she has downloaded that have her so addicted, she has to reload her lives as she is driving down the highway, so she doesn’t miss the good bonuses. This is a situation I’m sure many people go through, and it can be so frustrating to see a family member actively choose a little lightbox over their life and their whole family. People who are addicted to their phones usually don’t understand the impact it has on their lives. And this is coming from someone with 13 hours of screentime on the daily (just not behind the wheel).
Something I can do to become a better driver is pay more attention to my surroundings. I tend to space out when I am driving wither listening to music or a podcast and sometimes, I won’t know how I ended up at my destination. You always need to be on the lookout for other people when driving because you never know what they are going to do, and you just need to be prepared for anything. Something that would help me become a better driver is going back over the practice quizzes I reviewed for the written test. I still see signs out on the road three years after I got my license, and I don’t know what they mean. I could also go out and practice the turns and parallel parking that was required on my full license test.
As stated in the article posted under this submission, 34,000 people are killed each year in car accidents in America. This number is way too large, and something needs to be done in order to lower it. Raising the driving age, getting better driving education, and creating larger consequences for cell phone use while driving are just a few ways to do just that. Also, having conversations with friends and family on how they can become safer drivers can be vital in making a change on how people perceive the safety required when operating a motorized vehicle.