A driver’s education class is one of the most important classes any teen driver should take. It is crucial that everyone that is on the roads knows the proper way of driving and following the rules. But even with its importance it can be overlooked in many places. Every day, hundreds of teen driving-related accidents occur that can leave many people seriously injured. These accidents are many times preventable and can easily be avoided through education from driving classes.
The first step to solving a problem is to establish that there is in fact a problem. Making people aware of the dangers of being on the road and how to avoid these dangers is the first step to paving the way of preventing accidents and deaths. Teen driving accidents are among the most common types of accidents on roads and part of this is due to having an undeveloped frontal lobe. The frontal lobe controls our judgements and our actions and it is what ultimately helps us decide what is good and what is wrong. Teens don’t fully develop this part of their brain until they are in their twenties, which means that it makes them vulnerable to risky and dangerous decisions. This makes teens more likely to fall prey to peer pressure to do things like drinking and driving. Under peer pressure, a teen might drink, and this hinders his ability to think clearly. This can ultimately lead the teens to cause an accident and put not only themselves but the lives of their passengers in danger. I experienced this at my high school shortly after beginning my freshman year. A group of boys had decided to drink and then go driving around in a residential area close to my house. Only the driver survived, and he sustained serious injuries. Not only was he left with these injuries, but he was left with the guilt of having caused the death of his friends. Driving education helps shine the light on these issues and helps teach teens the importance of driving safely, ultimately discouraging them from participating in dangerous and risky actions. Teens face many more challenges on the road that can hinder their ability to drive safely. The most common one being distractions from phones. A phone can be a tool for many things such as entertainment, education, and important news. But in the hands of someone driving, it becomes a hazard. Unfortunately, many teens pick up their phone to answer calls or text someone and this can cause an accident. Many people claim that they can multitask, but in reality, this isn’t physically possible. Our brain can only focus on one thing at a time, it may seem like we can do many things simultaneously, but we are just shifting our focus from one thing to another quickly. As soon as you look down to check your phone while driving, your brain isn’t focused on the road anymore. Even if it’s a split second, an accident can happen quickly and change a life forever. That’s why it’s important to teach teens how to avoid these distractions, for example, my favorite way of avoiding having to look at my phone is to put it on silent and throw it in the glovebox. Out of sight, out of mind.
Many schools do provide a driving class, but they don’t provide the actual driving training with teachers helping teens. One way that schools can help is to have more of these programs with patient driving instructors personally training teens how to drive and how to apply the rules that they learned in the classroom. When I started my driving lessons, I was terrified, I was afraid of getting into an accident or making a mistake that embarrassed me. I couldn’t leave a residential area because I was afraid of being around other cars before taking these classes. But thankfully I had the best driving instructor, and he helped me get over this fear. This is what set him apart from other instructors in my opinion, he was understanding and compassionate and that helped me face my fear of driving and try more crowded streets. Teens need patient people to teach them these driving skills, if they’re nervous already and they have someone screaming in the ear to “BE CAREFUL!!”, it’s not going to end well for anyone in the vehicle. Furthermore, I believe that these classes shouldn’t be exclusive to high school students. I think that local park districts should help provide similar programs that can help teach people of all ages about safe roads. Education in driving is important for everyone in a car; it keeps the driver and their passengers safe from harm. By being made aware of the potential distractions and dangers, the numbers of teen driving related accidents will start to decrease.