In a study, nine out of ten adult Americans are licensed individuals and 239.2 million people in the United States can drive. To ensure the safety of everyone, the laws of the road should be followed by everyone. Driver’s education educates new drivers on the importance of following the laws of the road. If all individuals followed traffic laws, the number of accidents would majorly decrease, for example, a study conducted by the AAA Foundation in 2019 discovered that 28% of crash deaths were related to red light running. The importance of every second on the road is emphasized by driver’s education since the slightest lack of attention can be the difference between life and death. Understanding one’s surroundings could prevent many accidents. Furthermore, driver’s education teaches how different weather conditions require different skills. For example, cars must drive slower in rainy conditions, in another study, they emphasized “On average, 6,250 people are killed and over 480,000 people are injured in weather-related crashes each year. 74 percent of weather-related crashes happen on wet pavement, and 46 percent during rainfall.” Drivers education's main goal is to keep not just yourself safe whilst driving but also everyone else on the road. When basic education of roads and cars is not known, more accidents are likely to occur. To go further upon the idea of knowing one's vehicle, in a study, they discovered that nearly 300,000 accidents that occurred were because of brake failures. With advancements in technology, most vehicles will display signals alerting the driver of issues that may occur with the vehicle. Drivers education's main goal is to help people learn how to drive, while teaching the basics of a car and how to know if the car is driveable, even the slightest of mistakes on the road can cause severe damage so no information should be ignored. Some of the most emphasized points by Drivers education are distracted driving, impaired driving, and speeding. In a study done by the CDC, they told us that over 3,100 people were killed in accidents because of distracted driving, and of those individuals, 1 in 5 were not in an actual vehicle. The human brain is only able to fully focus on a singular activity at once, so when a driver tries to multitask, the brain is prone to put less focus on one of those activities. Driver’s Education repeatedly emphasizes the importance of staying focused whilst on the road, as the road is ever-changing and a greater focus is required. Adjusting on the spot is a skill that a driver must have and if the driver is distracted they aren’t able to do that. Moreover, impaired driving is even worse in another study done by the CDC they showed that in 2019, 30% of the accidents that occurred were because of impaired drivers, and of that 30% there were nearly 12,000 fatalities. Driver's education speaks on how impaired driving affects your ability to drive and the complexity of driving Furthermore, in a study done by the National Safety Council they discovered that speeding was the cause for 29% of all driving fatalities. Driver's education demonstrates that as exhilarating as speeding may be, it is the unsafest way to drive. Even if the driver is fully focused on the road whilst driving they don’t know what the other drivers on the road are thinking and are going to do. This goes hand in hand with another topic shown by Drivers Education which is a safe following distance, as every driver is unpredictable on the road. Speeding completely removes the safe following distance, as they are going much faster than the other cars on the road making it so any sudden action is almost impossible to react to safely. Driver’s education is the most important thing any individual who drives needs to do as it teaches every individual what each sign means, the dangers of the roads, and how to safely navigate in the world without causing harm to themselves and others.
As unfortunate as it is, fatalities related to driving can never be fully removed, but there are ways that the number can decrease. For example, stricter traffic citations and punishments are given to those who are found breaking traffic laws. The stricter citations would be for those who are speeding but not severely, such as 10-20 miles over the speed limit or someone who is on their phone when traffic is not around. The traffic citation would consist of a larger fine and more points against the individual's license, so a repeat offender is more likely to lose their license if they do not learn from previous experiences. More severe punishments would be for those who are driving at over 100 miles per hour, those who are on their phone in traffic and when others are around their vehicle, and those who drive impaired. Speeding severely and being on one's phone should always come with an arrest, a large fine, a court date, a revoking of the individual's license, and a possible stay in prison. Speeding and distracted driving puts the lives of others on the road at a major risk. The only way an individual will not commit the same actions repeatedly is if they realize just how major the risk is. Impaired driving should always result in prison, revoking of the license, and required attendance in DUI and AA meetings. Impaired driving is the largest show of selfishness on the road. Impaired driving puts too many lives at risk to be excused and the individual's license should be revoked a minimum of three years. Also, red light cameras should be more frequent. More red light cameras should be added so that more individuals aren’t prone to take the risk of trying to make it into the intersection with the yellow light, as they will know if they don’t make it they will be fined. Lastly, I think a mode such as airplane mode should be made, but for driving. In this mode, there are two options: completely silent and responsive. In the completely silent mode, the phone would be nearly identical to airplane mode where no notifications come to the individual's phone and none go out; the only difference would be that calls would still come through but not go out as most modern-day vehicles have a button on the steering wheel which allows the driver to pick up without having to take their hands off of the wheel. The responsive option would read out loud any notification that the individual got and then listen for the response of the driver for what to say to that notification. For example, if a text from the driver's friend comes asking “When are you getting here?” the driver will be able to say “15 minutes” or however long it would be and the phone will capture what was said and send it out to the person who originally texted. Everyone’s safety on the road relies on one another so it is necessary to educate oneself through driver's education.
From a young age, I was exposed to the world of irresponsible driving. The two main people who drove irresponsibly in my life were my father and my cousin. As a child, I always thought how they drove made them good drivers. Whether that was to change the lane they were in constantly or just speed. I always wanted to drive like them, as I thought that’s how all good drivers drove. With both my father and cousin having such great influence in my life, I became accustomed to this way of reckless driving. Always waiting for the next moment that I was in the car with them, I was addicted to the thrill. Being in the car with my family driving recklessly was thrilling, but once I reached the age where people around me started getting their licenses and driving recklessly, it turned more fearful. I wasn’t in control of my life when others were driving me. I was risking my life every time I was getting into the car with my friends because they weren’t willing to follow the basic rules taught by driver’s education. New drivers speed on the road, thinking that everyone around them is supposed to react to their reactions instead of it being the other way around. From speeding on roads to speeding in parking lots, the reckless driving did not end. My whole life, I have been around people who have driven irresponsibly.
I am not an individual that is excused from irresponsibly driving. I have also had an experience with myself where I have driven irresponsibly and not just put my life on the line but others’ lives as well. Trying to change the way I drive completely is more than a one-step process. The first step is acknowledging that the way I drive is not safe for me or the people around me. From there it is changing the errors one by one, for example, fully stopping at every stop sign I see or not trying to speed up and meet the yellow light before it turns red. The action may save me a few minutes, but it puts the lives of others at risk. The last thing is just practicing driving safely, from when I started driving I built a habit of speeding so I need to revert that mindset in my brain. Even the smallest of mistakes on the road can take the life of another person or my own life. Every driver needs to realize that they are not the only person on the road. Every single person on the road has their own life, and driving differently because of the thrill or to save a few minutes is not worth the risk of ruining your own life or the life of someone else. Every single action that I commit on the road affects others as well. Making the roads a safer place is not a one-day thing, it is a process and it starts with every single person on the road. The main goal of Driver’s Education is to educate others on the safety of the road. Whether that be through driving lessons or just guides that are provided by driver’s education, in the end, the goal is for everyone to be able to drive safely. They teach the functions of a car, functions of the road, dangers of the road, and laws of the road. They go into depth about each topic that an individual would want to know before they start to drive. The main goal is to ensure the safety of everyone who drives, and driver’s education does it through the promotion of safe driving and following all traffic laws.