Experience is the best Teacher

Experience is the best Teacher

A few statistics to consider, from 2016 (the latest year statistics are available):

• 88.3% of US residents 16 or over reported that they drove at least occasionally

• 186 billion driving trips

• 70 billion hours driving

• 2.62 trillion miles

• Speed-related crashes cost Americans $40.4 billion annually

• Over 50% of the five million yearly car crashes in the United States are caused by aggressive drivers

• Speeding killed 10,111 people in the US in 2016, accounting for more than a quarter (27%) of all traffic fatalities.

(Source: https://driving-tests.org/driving-statistics/)

Those are staggering numbers. And my family has a somewhat unique perspective into the subject. For years, my Father had a career as a television news photojournalist. During those years, he covered hundreds of traffic accidents, has seen things most people wouldn’t, participated in special driving training, and is now a driving instructor at a local driving school. The overriding theme based on his experience is that the more drivers ed people received, the greater the likelihood they would avoid an accident. Conversely, the less experienced the driver, the more severe the crash.

As a videographer the most common mistake drivers made, was not wearing a seatbelt. He has told us that the one thing these accidents had in common was an imprint of the passenger’s face on the inside of the windshield. The simple act of putting on the belt is the single biggest factor (after thorough drivers ed) in preventing another useless death on the highway. Because his job often meant driving fast in order to get to a scene quickly, the authorities offered his staff the opportunity to get some specialized driving training. While not ever condoning reckless, or unlawful driving, they recognized the need for the public’s right to know. So the policy was, in effect, if you’re going to do it, we’re going to train you to do it better, to minimize the risk to them and the public at large. But they were still subject to the laws like everyone else, and in no way would get a “free pass” if they were stopped.

That Training has had a lasting effect on him, even to this day. He insisted that we get teen driving instruction at a local driving school here in Kingwood, Texas, so that we would just learn from him, but also to get a variety of perspectives to find the best way, and the safest practices. It also inspired him to take a job with them as Driving Instructor, to keep his skills sharp, and to pass on what he could to the next generation of drivers. His favorite phrase is “experience is the best teacher”, and he is constantly saying that to his students.

In closing, here’s a few more statistics to balance those that I used at the beginning:

• Young drivers who have not completed drivers ed are 75 percent more likely to get a traffic ticket

• 24 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal or injury accident

• 16 percent more likely to have an accident

(Source: https://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2015/08/13/Study:+Driver%27s+ed+significantly+reduces+teen+crashes,+tickets)