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)