Teen driving safety is a major public concern with wide reaching implications and driver's education represents a key element in resolving its complexities. Young and inexperienced drivers are represented in roadways, and represent the highest proportion of roadway injuries, accidents, and fatalities. This is not only a personal concern for families; it presents a huge strain on public health situations, on emergency response services, and ultimately, on the economy of your community. Driver's education is about teaching the fundamentals of operating a vehicle but more importantly, it is about helping to develop an understanding of the rules of the road, evaluating risk, defensive driving strategies, and a cultivated consciousness about responsibility when sharing the road. Driver's ed helps provide a supervised environment for learning important skills that can manifest into safer habits before teens face the uncertainty involved with driving in live traffic.
Teen drivers today face a number of important challenges that threaten their safety. One of the greatest impairments for teens facing safe driving is the distraction of their phones again. Social media, texting, and looking to see if they have any notifications can take your attention off the road in just a matter of seconds, and potentially result in some serious consequences. Peer pressure is also a significant factor, as teens are trying to fit in or impress their friends, they may feel a need to drive fast, drive aggressively, or even pile in multiple passengers for fear of being seen as "uncool". Lack of experience is a very basic but important issue. New drivers often have not developed the latent hazard perception, decision making, or vehicle control that comes from years of experience with driving. Addressing these issues is not simple. For adolescents, becoming self-aware and self-disciplined, and not using the phone during driving would be a huge advantage. A straightforward method of combating peer pressure might be a candid and open dialogue with peers about risk taking while driving. Lack of experience is best dealt with through gradually exposing teen drivers to different driving conditions, all while they are driving under supervision.
I remember a moment from my high school days that epitomized safe driving. One of my buddies had just gotten his license and, for someone who was often clearly either lazy or had developed a case of “keep it cool” syndrome, he typically was not a safe driver. He would text at red lights, take a glance at his phone while driving, and was always in a hurry. One day he was driving a small group of us home from school, and he took one turn a little too fast, misjudged the curve, and swerved into the opposite lane - and if you've ever driven a car like the one, he was driving, it was close to flipping over. While there was no harm done, the fear in the car was immediate and deep. The car was filled with silence and I thought about that silence, and I saw fear on the face and voice of my friend that I've never seen.​That was definitely an eye opener and a real time lesson for us all about how unpredictable the road is and how, if you are not paying attention, what could be a minor mistake can easily spiral out of control. It reminded us all that safe driving is no longer about just not getting a ticket or an accident, but maybe saving your life and ensuring that they are not a hazard to everyone else.
To make driving safer for youth, it's not only dependent on youth. It's a community effort. Parents, schools and communities all need to play a part. There are things that young people can do. They can decide for themselves to have a "no phone while driving" rule. If a young person is in the car with someone, they think is impaired, they can say something. Young people can train for more opportunities to drive with a supervisor, and get experience in as many variations of driving conditions as possible. Young people can sign a safe-driving agreement with their parents. Schools can promote elements from the driver's education course via sustained advertising campaign via: assemblies, health class, and guest speakers to tell stories from their past on unsafe driving. A peer-to-peer safe driving program may be an effective tool. There are things that communities can do as well. Communities can spend money on road maintenance and effective signage, enforce traffic laws uniformly, organize parent-child driving workshops, develop educational initiatives with local entities, offer defensive driving courses through community centers. By working together, promoting positive choices, accountability, and awareness - as a group - they can all collectively minimize the risk of injuries and deaths associated with adolescent driving behaviors - and keep everyone a little safer on the road.