Questions to be answered in your Essay/Application



What is the importance of driver education in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving?


What steps can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving?


Have you ever had an experience of being in a car accident or have seen your friends or family members driving irresponsibly?


What steps can you take to be a better and safer driver as well as help others become safer on the road?


I believe driver education is the quintessential tool to help reduce the number of deaths in the United States. Regardless of the topic, there’s no better deterrent to poor decisions than education. Laws and rules make little to no difference if we don’t have conscious, attentive, and aware drivers who can make consistently good decisions while driving. So why can’t we reduce the number of driving-related deaths, even when we do our best to prepare new drivers? One of the reasons I believe we fall short when reaching for this goal is the lack of continuing education. Most of us (if not all) take a drivers ed course for about two weeks, we study the materials, and once we pass the respective tests we’re out and about, never wanting to look back. This outdated structure creates the wrong kind of incentive for our drivers. It incentivizes the need to drive but not to keep learning and retaining this knowledge, which dwindles as time goes by. It’s easy to say that more education is needed, but what would that actually look like? I believe we learn better when we can empathize with different experiences even if we ourselves have not lived them. We can all look at random driving statistics and be flabbergasted by the facts, but that seldom makes a difference if it has no direct impact on our daily actions as drivers. This is why I propose a program called “Driving-With-Empathy”, where drivers can volunteer to take classes every three to five years once they’ve obtained their license. These classes would focus on common driving distractions that affect manual, visual, and cognitive functions while driving. They would be led by “mentors” who’ve been directly impacted by different kinds of distracted driving accidents, and they would be customized based on your age and experience. If you’re a teenager and you just started driving, the best class for you might be the one that focuses on “Texting-And-driving? Think-Again” or “Driving-With-Peers”. If you’re someone who’s in their late twenties or early thirties, there might be a class for you that focuses on “Drinking-And-Feeling-Risky?” or “Driving-As-A-New-Parent”. The goal would be to gain awareness about specific, life-altering driving tendencies that might lead to long-term physical and/or mental injuries. The focus is not to shame nor berate these actions, but to learn how to spot and mitigate them when we’re on the road. Awareness is the first step towards empathy, and empathy leads to conscious action. At first these classes wouldn’t be mandated, but we could incentivize a lot of individuals to take these classes by, for example, reducing their car insurance costs, providing tax credits, or even granting them state/federal credits for new EV’s. Depending on how successful the program is it could be slowly implemented in high-schools, colleges, and even in the work-place. In terms of my own personal experience I’ve been rear-ended more times than I’d like to admit. Fortunately, these accidents have been minor and have only caused cosmetic damage to my vehicle. That being said, every time this has happened the impact of every accident has stuck with me. Car-related accidents, no matter how small, always cause some sort of trauma; they leave you scared, tense, on edge, and quite vulnerable, even days after the incident took place. If this has been my experience with fender-benders, I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be in a serious collision. I’ve also been lucky enough to have had multiple positive role models throughout my life, which has made it that much easier to be a conscientious and present driver even if I still fall short at times. On my end, I need to be better at managing my time. The convenience and commodity of a car makes it so that I am always leaving last-minute, which means that when I get in my car I’m usually rushing, stressed, and thinking about my destination, not my driving nor how it affects those around me. Because of these unintended cognitive distractions, my duty as a safe driver has to start before I get in my vehicle. Managing my time and planning accordingly can make a world of difference not only for me but those around me, and this slight change in routine can literally mean the difference between a life-altering event or an accident-free life. Safe driving doesn’t mean zero accidents, but it does mean having all the necessary tools and knowledge at our disposal whenever we’re faced with split-second driving decisions that can either take life, or preserve it.