One of the leading causes of death for teens and young adults are vehicle accidents, car crashes. There are many steps that can be taken to help prevent deaths, but one of the most important is driver education. In personal experience I have seen how driver education can help reckless or uneducated drivers become safe on the roads. In my own experience with driver education I have become a safer and better driver.

In high school we all have to go through a health class that explains the dangers of things like drugs and infections. We sit in a classroom with peers and listen to real life accounts, hear statistics, and are given advice on how to prevent ourselves from going down an unhealthy route. I even remember further back into elementary school, where we learned about how to be a safe bike rider, and why wearing a helmet is so important. Now these courses did not stop everyone from not trying drugs or not wearing a helmet, but it brought an awareness to everyone that helped prevent many from falling into the dangers of them. Driver education can do that for so many people as well. It brings attention and awareness to the statistics of driver death and car accidents to drivers they may not have known previously. It gives people an education and new perspective on how what type of driver they are can greatly affect their life. It is shown that the knowledge drivers education gives its students helps reduce crashes by 4.3% and reduce vehicle convictions by 40%. So simply taking drivers education classes that go over defensive driving, the dangers, and safety aspects have proven to already reduce.

Steps that can be taken to increase those rates and reduce driving related deaths would be to make driver education more accessible. I was lucky enough to have parents that paid for me to take a driver’s course that gave me a lot of useful information and taught me how to drive safely. I will say what was lacking was the information about safety and the statistics of the dangers. It wasn’t until I got into a fender-bender in high school where a police officer gave me and the other girl a 5 mph speeding ticket and wanted us to take the online traffic school class. This driving class that I had to take after an accident, and paid $300 for is really what made me understand what safety and dangers come with driving. I think we need to take the steps to make these courses available before any accidents occur and input them into highschool curriculum, like a health class. This will help get our new drivers the information they need to prevent reckless and unsafe driving, and make it accessible to everyone who may not be able to pay the money for a class. Driver's education should be equitable and national.

I have family members who have been in accidents or have been ticketed for reckless driving. My younger brother had received a series of speeding tickets and eventually got his license suspended. He had to go through a reckless driving course to get his license unsuspended. He lived with me at the time and I had to drive him to and from the class. This class had people who had similar driving records to him and even people with DUIs. On his last day of class I asked what he gained from the class. His biggest take away was the safety and financial consequences that come with reckless driving. The class has made him a safer and more conscious driver. I was happy that he got that experience but I do wish he had the opportunity to learn all that prior to getting on the road.

In the age of cell phones and the great attachment to them, driver education is even more important now. I personally can be a better driver by putting more restrictions on my phone when driving. I can make sure to set up a playlist before driving so I don’t need to scroll for a song, or choose a podcast that lasts the whole drive. Driver education has great importance in prevention of deaths due to accidents. The number of deaths is so large and inputting driver education into schools, or making it available to the public for low or no cost could greatly continue its effect. Driver education already shows some impact on reducing crashes, if we take the steps to make it more accessible and part of the education system we can increase the impact, and decrease the fatalities.