I took driver's ed in the fall of my junior year, at first I found it boring and tedious since it was after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5:30. But later into the courses I knew that it was very necessary, even though it was boring it taught me to be a better and safer driver.
Driver’s ed basically preaches defensive driving to its students and we learn to always be cautious of anything on or near the road. Defensive driving not only for younger drivers but for everyone can help reduce the number of driving related deaths. Defensive driving also taught us how to deal with road ragers and showed us how to remain calm in stressful conditions.
There are a ton of different things we can do to help reduce driving related deaths. Drivers should; stay off their phones and the screens that most cars have now, keeping their eyes on the road and not on other passengers or scenery, if intoxicate finding an uber or a sober friend to drive them home, staying in your lane and not drifting through the lines, not making risky moves like quickly pulling out in front of someone, really paying attention to crosswalks and people on bikes. The passengers should; not touch the driver, the driver's seat, the gear shift, the steering wheel, the mirrors, they should be calm so the driver can focus properly.
My neighbor is a year older then me and last summer he was going to Mac Donald’s late at night and on his way home a drunk driver crashed into him. This resulted in him being unable to play his senior year soccer season. On a Saturday night in July I was coming home from a friends graduation party, it was about 10:45 at night and the car in front of me was driving in the middle of the road right over the middle yellow lines and there were a few moments when cars were coming at us, I was really worried that if another car was coming at them they weren’t going to move back to their side and they’d collide in front of me. I didn’t know what to do about it, should I do a little honk to get them back on their side of the road? But I did not want to startle them and cause them to swerve more or to make them mad and be more reckless, so I just kept my distance behind them and made sure I could easily call 911 and know where we were. Eventually they turned off into a neighborhood, I can only assume they were drunk and trying to get home but it was still scary for me and I am grateful that nothing bad happened to us that night.
After school I took some friends to Sabrosas. There were three of them in the back seat and one person in my passenger seat. My friend directly behind me shifted and accidentally bumped my seat and nearly immediately apologized to me, but then the kid in the middle seat decided it was a fantastic idea to start punching my seat and did not stop until everyone else in the car had to yell at him too. We were stopped at a stoplight so it was not as dangerous as us moving but it was still distracting to me as the driver. My dad is also a road rager, if someone is going too slow on the highway for his liking he’ll floor it and pass them, he drives a ford F-150 so it’s loud when he speeds up that quickly. This also happens with people on bikes, we live in a small town so only a few roads actually have a bike lane and there’s also a lot of traffic especially in the summer. So when there’s bikers on the side of the road he’ll again have to floor it around them to keep traffic flowing properly. It is a little scary sometimes just speeding up next to a little bike right in front of another car coming at you from the other direction. no
I am guilty of going on my phone to skip an add on spotify and listening to really loud music. I know it is bad and I have mostly stopped. As a driver I will not be on my phone and driving and my notifications will be silenced, except for my parents, to help eliminate more distractions. I will also encourage my friends to take drivers ed or the defensive drivers course because it really helped me be able to be calm in different situations. Although it was tedious and seemed stupid in the beginning drivers ed prepared very well and I will recommend it every time to everyone.