The importance of drivers education is to know the laws while driving a vehicle in order to keep you, as well as others, safe. Not just knowing, but abiding by these laws will help reduce the number of deaths in vehicle accidents. Drivers education is not just about how to drive the vehicle and know the road signs, but also about knowing how alcohol, drugs, and cell phones can affect not only your driving but your life. Knowing and seeing the results of a seriously injured or deadly accident leads to a more permanent impact on one’s memory.
Some steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving can be to educate people. Education can be in the form of talks, videos, and knowing the safety features of a vehicle. Continue to use commercials for seat belts, as well as billboards and ads for drinking and driving. Since young people are linked to their cell phones and social media, ads or commercials on Facebook, Twitter, Tik-Tok, or even Snap Chat would be very impactful. These are several apps that the youth use frequently. Students are on their phones several hours a day and your ads about safe driving should include short scenes of vehicle accidents along with the driver speaking on how their decisions and the accident changed their lives and future. Young individuals need to be reminded that they are not invincible and can be seriously injured or even killed.
Thanks to God and being educated through the driver’s education program and my parents helping inform me of making the right decisions when it comes to peer pressure and cell phones, I have not had a vehicular accident. I know that I have to do my part to be a safe driver, but I also have to be a defensive driver just in case others make mistakes. I do have a cousin that was 19 who was drinking and driving. When he came to an “s” curve in the road he rolled the vehicle 3 times. He was ejected from the vehicle and when he landed on the ground he broke his back. He was air flighted to the hospital where they performed several surgeries for various injuries. He was on an air ventilator and even had to relearn how to swallow. He was in the hospital for several months before he was released. This accident happened 4 years ago and he is currently considered a quadriplegic. He is wheelchair-bound and can use some of his upper body with limited use of his hands. He was so young when he had his tragic accident which changed not only his life but his family’s life forever.
Also, I have an uncle that was drinking and driving which caused a head-on collision with a parked 18-wheeler truck. He was rushed to the hospital and his life was touch-and-go for several days. He had multiple lacerations and internal bleeding. He did survive and healing took over a year but he looks and acts like a different person. He had numerous surgeries on various parts of his body and the doctors had to totally reconstruct his face. Due to the impact on his brain, his behavior and speech have permanently been affected. Even after 5 years, he tends to get irritated and angry quickly and has trouble recalling words. His behavior has also affected his wife’s life due to his behavior and they are currently on the verge of a divorce.
Some steps can you take to be a better and safer driver as well as help others become safer on the road is education. Someone needs to come to schools at least one time a year and talk about how people should handle different situations that can arise in one’s life: leaving a party when you have used drugs or alcohol, heading home late at night when you feel fatigue, or even what to do when calls or texts come in while you are driving. A yearly reminder on these or other issues that teenagers/early twenties may come across in their early driving years can help save lives. To have a bigger impact, have real people come and testify to the students about what caused their accident and how that has affected their life and future. The students need to see that their life can change in an instant. Teenagers feel that they are invincible and too young for anything bad to happen to them. Being prepared and informed is the best weapon in reducing the number of deaths from irresponsible driving to becoming a safer driver.