How Teens Can Drive Safer On The Road, and How Do We Get There….

How Do We Get There….

As a teen that has been driving just over a year, I know driving is a great privilege to have and a big responsibility. Once you get in the car and start driving, it’s your responsibility to keep yourself and everyone else on the road safe, and to drive with caution. Sadly this isn’t always the case, and a lot of teens pay the ultimate price for not practicing safe driving. In 2016, 2,433 teens died and 292,742 were injured in a motor vehicle accident. As a teen driver these numbers are extremely concerning. There are ways we can decrease these numbers and ways to make driving safer for teens.

I feel my generation doesn’t completely understand the dangers of distracted driving, a lot of teen drivers drive recklessly. It might be due to careless behavior, the sheer lack of experience new drivers have, or maybe it comes down to the driving education system. In order to drive in most states as a teen, you must take drivers ed. I feel that drivers ed is not affordable to many families, which means a lot of teens have to wait until they turn 18 to get their license. At 18 they are more responsible, but they lack the safety training that many younger drivers receive. I believe that making drivers ed affordable and required for all drivers will help improve our situation. Also, if we modeled how Germany teaches driving, it would make the fatality rates drop in the United States. In Germany, drivers ed students are required to have a minimum of 25 to 40 hours of lessons from a professional driving instructor. In 2016, Germany had a total of 3,214 total fatalities for all ages. I believe we could make the roads safer for younger people in America.

I believe the practice of safe driving should be advertised more to spread awareness about the situation we have in the United states. With the amount of fatalities we have each year, safe driving should be advertised just as much as smoking is on all social media and tv. I believe this will decrease the amount of fatalities. I feel like all new drivers should be required to use a device like the snapshot that records how you drive to see how safe your driving is. This device should connect to your phone to see how often you use your phone while driving. This should only apply to the drivers first two years of driving.

Bibliography:

Deutsche Welle. “Road Deaths in Germany Fall to All Time Low but Accidents on the Rise: DW: 24.02.2017.” DW.COM, www.dw.com/en/road-deaths-in-germany-fall-to-all-time-low-but-accidents-on-the-rise/a-37703282.

“Teen Drivers: Get the Facts | Motor Vehicle Safety | CDC Injury Center.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/teen_drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html.