Drive Smart, Arrive Alive

Driving is a great way to get around, and it’s also fun to blast music with your friends, but it’s fun until you get into a car accident and someone or all dies. Most teens are super excited to get their licence and are excited to go wherever they want, but what teens don’t understand is that if they are distracted by their phone, watch, purse, or other passengers for even one second then that could lead to a car accident and hurt you and your passengers or even other people in other cars. Most teens don’t care about that and do it anyway, that's why teens are more likely to get into accidents. 

Driver Education can prevent accidents and crashes, if teens take driver education then those teens can learn about driving safety and learn driving skills to make them a better driver, which is reducing the number of deaths while driving. Driver Education should be a requirement for all schools all over the globe because this will reduce the number of deaths related to driving and driving and drivers and passengers will be safer. With driver education you drive a lot and get a lot of hours driving, so when the class is over you don’t have the restrictions that you would have with your licence until you’re 18 if you didn't take the class. You can also learn new things about driving and cars that you didn’t know and that could help make you a better driver. When you are driving with other people you are responsible for keeping them safe and making sure they have their seatbelts on in the car. If you crash and passengers in the car get hurt or die it’s on you. You can’t say “well I thought they have their seatbelts on” because you have to make sure they do. Driver education teaches you that you always have to make sure your passengers are safe. If you sign up for a PIRP course then you can get up to 10% off of insurance. Who doesn’t want to save money?  

There are about 16,800-17,000 crashes in one day around the whole world, but I have never been in an accident myself. Some of my family has been in car crashes or accidents. I also have witnessed my family go on their phones while driving and also speed. Growing up I just thought that's how everyone drove and it wasn’t illegal, but it is. For me to be a better driver I’m taking driver education to learn driving skills and how to be a safe driver. When I drive I’m going to put my phone on “Do Not Disturb” so when people text me I won’t see it and get distracted, I also will go the speed limit and not do illegal turns or passes so I don’t get hurt or die. For my family and friends to be safe on the road I’m going to tell them to take drivers ed even if it's online or in person, so they can be a safer and better driver. When I was younger I was always so scared to start driving, then when I turned 16 I got my permit and now I’m driving here and there and it’s not as bad as I always thought. People think that as soon as they turn 16 that they have to get their permit that day or even that week or month, but that isn’t the case, if you don’t feel comfortable driving yet that’s ok, you want to feel comfortable driving before you get your licence because if not then you can crash and get hurt or die or even kill other people as well.

Driver Education isn’t just a class, it’s a tool for saving lives by teaching driving rules, hand placement on the wheel and defensive driving. Schools should work together to make this class mandatory for all teens so they are a safe driver. You never want to be the person who is in an accident and you never want to be the person who causes an accident. People who take driver education usually love it because then when they are ready to do their road test they aren't as scared because they learned so many new things that they wouldn’t have learned if they didn’t take it. If you want to take driver education but you’re scared to do it alone, get a friend to do it too or even all of your friends so they can be safe drivers as well. So take driver education to be a better and safer driver.