In the Driver's seat...

I was terrified to drive when I was first learning how. I could have given you a thousand excuses on why I did not want to drive. I went through something very real and scary that not many young teens do not ever experience.

One of my dear friends lost her life in a car accident around the time I was about to start drivers ed. She was a very sweet, loving, and inspiring human being. She did not have the best grades but she always meant well. One day, she was struggling to get to school, and the only way she could was by driving herself. She was less than a mile from school, and she looked down at her phone for the last time. She was ejected from the car because she was not even wearing a seatbelt. She was driving without having completed a drivers ed course or having a driver’s license. I can tell you now that I have never and will never drive without a seatbelt on.

Driver’s ed is so important, especially for young people. It is like wrapping ourselves with imaginary bubble wrap before we get behind the wheel to protect ourselves out on the road. The first two things I learned from taking a drivers ed course was to always wear a seatbelt and to never text and drive. Just learning those things and applying them to daily lives would reduce the amount of driving related deaths drastically as those are leading factors in car accidents. I hear many stories of loved ones who were great people, but were careless behind the wheel and were gone too soon.

We may also reduce the amount of deaths on the roads by emphasizing drivers ed. Put out more adds to where teens see them constantly. Teens do not like being told what to do, but if something like this is put in their face long enough they may just listen. Another way to reduce driving deaths would be to make driver’s education a priority to teens. Most teens who are injured or killed from deaths probably do not have good understanding of driver’s education. They may have been under the impression that they could participate in drivers ed if they want to do so. If they are told that they are strongly urged to participate in driver’s education, more teens would participate.