Make Safe Driving Cool

As a young driver, getting your license is everything, it feels like a rite of passage. Some grow and mature with the newfound responsibilities of driving, carefully following the rules and guidelines set forth in the drivers ed they have received and using their common sense. Others who pay little mind to education or who have not received any, get behind the wheel of a lethal weapon. For everyone it needs to be a step-in life that is carefully addressed, practiced and educated on before getting behind the wheel and taking 

responsibility for your life and others in your hands. 

One of the first things every kid wants to do when they get their licenses is show their friends. They want to show off and let everyone know that they are able to drive a vehicle by themselves and go wherever they wish. With this comes a lot of responsibility and dangers. The many laws against novice drivers help to keep them safe but there are many easy ways to get around these laws, and many kids do avoid them. For example, young drivers are only able to have a certain number of passengers and drive at certain times, these laws would be extremely helpful, if young drivers were to follow them. By cracking down on kids violating these laws, this would help save the lives of many new drivers that want to pack as many friends in their cars as they can or think they can pick up anyone at any time of the night. The lives of these friends are now in your hands, you control if they live or die. 

As I talked about before, many new drivers want to impress and show off. They now have this ability that many other kids do not have and all they want to do is let everyone know. One way that many kids express this is through speeding. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2016 there were 10,111 fatalities due to speeding and this number has increased 4% since then. This large number of deaths is just from speeding alone. Imagine if no one in the world sped, that would be 10,111 lives spared that could be on this earth right now. These deaths could be avoided very easily if people realized that the speed limit is NOT a suggestion and it IS the law.

With the number of experienced drivers on the road, there are also new drivers roaming around. Experienced drivers that were not taught or do not listen to the rules, are just as bad as new eager drivers. Since they have been driving for a long period of their life, they think the rules do not apply to them, but in fact they do! If you are getting behind the wheel of a vehicle, you should know the dangers, rules, and common sense to operating a vehicle. This needs to be taught at a young age, even before the young driver gets behind the wheel for the first time. It needs to be ingrained in the minds of the youth, so they are able to stay safe on the roads. Novice drivers starting out with confidence and the knowledge they need to succeed behind the wheel will not only benefit them but will set an example for their kids and the other new drivers they will come in contact with. 

To wrap things up, driving is not a right, it is a privilege and it must be treated carefully, or it can be taken away from you very quickly. Allowing the youth to get behind the wheel is now a responsibility on the driver’s parents to make sure they are equipped with the right tools they need to have the best awareness on the road. And when you choose to put yourself behind the wheel, know that your life and the lives of whoever else is in the vehicle or on the road, are in your hands. If you can make yourself a safe driver, others will catch on and safe, confident driving will be the new thing to impress your friends with.