Driving Education For All

In today’s world where everything is fast paced and everyone is in a rush to get to their destination. Many of us think we are invisible and often make bad choices like driving drunk, speeding, not wearing a seat belt or not following the speed limit. Because of the poor choices made and the lack of safety awareness, there are many lives loss each year to motor vehicle crashes.

I was sixteen years old when I first got my driver license. In the state of Texas if you’re a minor, it’s mandatory to attend Drivers ed before the license can be issued. As a young first -time driver all I could think of was that the class was a waste of my time. Driving didn’t seem difficult and if my friend can drive without haven’t to take a driver course or obtaining a license then, why do I have to attend, and pay for the class? On the first day of class, I was reluctant to take it seriously, but to my surprise I began to realized that driving meant a lot more than just getting in a car. Driving is a responsibility that must be taken seriously because other lives depend on it.

With deaths statistics being high, I propose two ways of lowering death tolls. One way is providing inexpensive mandatory safety driving course to anyone wanting to obtain a license. Also, I would implement Driver’s education classes as part of a school curriculum to all high school students and making it mandatory for all student to successfully complete the course before applying of licensure. By making all defensive driving courses accessible to all potential drivers it can lead to increase safe driving awareness and potentially decrease insensible deaths that occurred each year.

Another solution for promoting safe driving would be for the DMV to have stricter guidelines when it comes to reprimanding those that drink and drive. First suspend license for one year on all first time DUI offenders and make them take classes on their own expense. Secondly, revoke driver license for up 5 years for second time offenders and have them participate in community services sponsoring events that promote safety driving education to the community. On the third offense the license would be permanently revoke and jail time up to 10 years would be required; regardless whether there is an accident or not.

By implementing this mandatory guideline, it may lead to increase safety awareness and compliance; therefore, decreasing death tolls. I personally never being involve in a car accident, but had a close call when someone cut me off while driving the speed limit. The second close call incident was the time I had to swerve in order to avoid hitting a deer. I was able to avoid these accidents by being aware of my surroundings and driving the speed limit.

Education is power and it should be made accessible to everyone so that we can have safer roads and less motor vehicle accident.