Teen driving can be a very stressful, emotional and eager moment for not only parents but teens as well. As a parent of a now 18-year-old and having to go through all the teen driving classes and allowing them to practice driving with me in the car while having their temps I feel all pedestrians near a road or on a road should be aware of teen driving safety. Teen driving safety should be a public issue due to the fact that those on or near a road should always be aware of their surroundings and what is happening around them. I always told my son when he got his temps its not himself, he needs to be worried about when on the roads rather its others around him.
I set my son up with drivers ed classes and the second night he came home he looked at me and goes, “I now get why you say its others around me I need to be concerned about”. I asked him why he finally understood and he told me because he watched a video of a new driver driving and watching the road but another teen driver was texting and driving and rear-ended the car in front of them and killed the teen who was sitting at a light waiting. He told me if the teen that was sitting at the light was watching around him while waiting, he might have been able to move out of the way if he saw the car behind him coming at a high rate of speed.
After many weeks of in class drivers ed and in car classes my son told me he was glad I put him in the classes so he was able to see real situations that have happened before he was even put onto the road with a complete stranger. He knew after seeing videos and hearing stories he now knew that he needed to be vigilant at all times while behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle.
I feel drivers’ education plays a great deal in public issues because when students are out driving, they all have the “student driver “sticker on the car so others around them are aware that that vehicle might be going slow or be stopped for a longer time at stop signs or intersections due to learning the vehicle they are driving and also the surroundings they are driving in (ex. Freeways, hills, curves, railroads, side road). Drivers ed drivers and schools make sure to have their vehicles marked so others are aware and also so the student driver doesn’t have to feel rushed, scared and or stressed while practicing.
Today teen drivers have so many distractions to be worried about. The two distractions I feel teens have to worry about the most these days are phones and friends. I feel phones distract many teens today because they want to answer their text back right when they receive them, they might have their music playlists hooked to their phone and it isn’t connected to their car radio so they are trying to do that while behind the wheel. Maybe a friend sends them a photo and they are trying to look at it really quick and simply take their eyes off the road for two seconds or maybe even trying to put in directions to their phone and following those teens take their eyes off the road to look at phone and an accident happens. All these things that can happen while in a car might seem little or be things that can be done “quickly” while behind the wheel but what can really happen quickly is a teen trying to do one of these things and within two quick seconds an accident can occur.
I think one-way teens, phones and friends can overcome accidents in cars is by having phones that lock when someone under the age of 18 enters a car. I feel this is a good way to keep teens eyes on the road even when not behind the wheel. For instance, if a teen under the age of 18 is driving with family they can be observing how the adult is driving and seeing different situations the adult may be experiencing. This is also good so when teens are together in a vehicle, they can all have their eyes on the road working together to stay safe and watch their surroundings.
I feel teens, communities and schools can all work together to promote safer driving among young drivers by offering driving schools within the school. The communities can work with the schools and teens by having local car dealerships donate an older car(s) to the school to allow teen driving classes to happen in them. Also, the people of the school community can offer helping teens by being drivers ed instructors or offering to work on the cars the dealerships donate to the local schools. I also feel the people in each community can promote safer teen driving by setting examples and not driving with phones attached to our ears or having phones on stands as we drive. Even when we have teens or younger children in our vehicles and them seeing what we do behind the wheel is never safe. Its always like the saying my parents use to say to me “monkey see monkey do”. The young students see us do something they will do as we did when they were with us. We as the older generations need to step up and be the leaders to these younger generations and show them right from wrong.