Teen driving is an important public issue because teens get easily distracted while driving and being behind the steering wheel makes teens feel like a full grown adult. Because of this feeling of power that teens get by driving they make irresponsible decisions while driving. For example using their phone, playing loud music, speeding thru yellow traffic lights, and driving recklessly. Driver's education plays the role of addressing this issue by teaching you actions you can start practicing to become a safer, responsible driver. Learning these good habits that they teach you at drivers education can also reduce the numbers of deaths not only of drivers but pedestrians too.

The biggest challenge teen drivers face today is getting into a car accident because of the bad choices they decided to make. Bad choices teens make while driving are speeding and racing each other. Teens also lack experience on the road so they don’t know how other drivers drive out there. Teens think acting this way is cool and fun but what they don’t realize is in reality it can cost you your life.

Most teens like to play loud music while driving. This is a big distraction when it comes to driving safely. When teens play their music loudly they are in their zone and might not be paying attention to the loud sirens of emergency cars approaching them like police, ambulance and fire truck. If you cannot hear these emergency sirens you most likely won’t be able to move out of the way for the emergency vehicle in time and that can cause confusion or worse a collision. This can be fixed by lowering the volume on their music when driving or no music at all for the safety of everyone.

Teens using their phone while driving is a big distraction to them because they don't have their eyes on the road and anything can happen in a quick second like the car in front of you suddenly stopping. What teens can do to improve this bad habit is wait until they get to their designated location or they can pull over to a gas station for example if they really need to use their phone while driving.

Most teens like to speed and this can cause lethal accidents. Teens racing each other on the roads or highways is never a good outcome; it can cause road rage in others drivers also. Raging drivers can also tailgate you because of it or be aggressive towards you. Teens can also go to jail for running over a pedestrian because they didn’t see the person and couldn’t stop in time. Teens can overcome speeding by paying attention to traffic signs on the road for example and making sure they are going the speed limit it says and not going over it.

A personal driving experience that highlights the importance of safe driving habits for teens is not driving through the red traffic light because it can cause a serious accident and you can hurt other people. I have a second degree burn in my left forearm caused by a reckless driver who ran the red light while mine was on green and I had the right of way. This car accident that happened about two years ago shows the dangers you can put yourself and others in just because you decided to speed through the red traffic light. Telling family members and friends as well as others your story of a car accident if any can help them become more aware when driving.

Another event where driving irresponsibly takes place is when it rains and there are non-working traffic lights. These non working traffic lights make people have to come to a complete stop at the light to make sure there are no other cars going when you are going. Some drivers don’t respect stop signs overall so on a rainy day this causes many accidents because people don’t wait a couple of seconds for the person who got there first to go first. Unfortunately I was able to witness an accident like this happening. A driver and I stopped at the traffic light at the same time & we were both supposed to go straight forward in a vertical way. Another driver stopped second & he was going horizontally, he didn’t stop at the non working traffic light and they T-bone the car going vertically.

Specific actions that teens, schools, and communities can take to promote safer driving among people is talking about the consequences that can occur by being neglectful to what you’re being taught in driving school and doing the opposite.