Deborah
Brown, University of Maryand College Park
Dmv.edu
Scholarship Summer 2020

In
The Time It Takes You To Read This Essay: Education can save lives

Driving
is a responsibility. Like any responsibility, if not done correctly
it has disastrous results. Irresponsible driving causes 34,000 deaths
on average each year. This represents approximately 93 people every
day, almost 8 people every hour. In
the time it takes you to read this essay, one person will die from a
car accident.
The majority of victims are not the ones driving irresponsibly.

These
deaths are avoidable. 93 people every day do not have to die. Driving
should not have casualties equivalent to war. Drivers must be more
aware of the consequences of their irresponsibility. They need to be
educated on driving safely, which is literally a matter of life or
death.

When
I was five years old, a teenage girl hit our car head-on. The entire
front bumper fell off. My father and I were lucky to survive. The
girl, who did not have a license and had never gone through Driver’s
Ed, had taken her mother’s truck. This experience taught me at a
young age that it is simply too dangerous to drive until you know how
to do it correctly.

A
simple step to reduce deaths from driving is to require Driver’s
Education to be renewed every few years. Many documents such as
passports and gun licenses are renewed regularly. If driving causes
more deaths than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it seems clear that
driver’s licenses should be regulated like gun licenses. When
people have been driving for 30 or 40 years, they are likely to
forget what they learned as a teenager and may speed, not stop at
lights, or not slow before turns because they feel comfortable
driving. These are the irresponsible actions that cause fatalities
and injuries. If they are reminded every five years, by a brief video
and online quiz, they will think before they get in the driver’s
seat.

However,
the girl who hit our car did not have her license at all. For that
reason, another step is federal legislation to punish driving without
a license. This will hopefully deter children and criminals from
getting behind the wheel. If they have not gone through Driver’s
Ed, they are not aware of the responsibility they take on as soon as
they hit the gas. The government should ensure that only people who
understand this are driving.
I
can take steps to make myself and others safer drivers. I can adjust
the mirrors as soon as I get behind the wheel of my family’s car,
instead of fixing them as I drive, so that I have full visibility
before I get onto the street. I can remind my sister to do the same.
When my younger cousins learn how to drive, I can tell them that this
responsibility should not be taken lightly. When I one day have
children, I can teach them to be safe and responsible drivers. This
informal education, coupled with official Drivers ed, can
reduce the number of deaths that come from driving.