Prioritizing Safe Driving

Prioritizing Safe Driving

By Kaitlyn Rawlings

Being a teenager in 2019, reckless driving is something that I have become accustomed to witnessing, especially with the influence of social media and texting. This is immensely worrisome for me, as this trend is only seeming to increase, rather than decline. That is why teaching drivers education needs to be a priority for today's youth.

I never really thought about driver safety until one of my classmates passed away around two years ago. She was driving her sisters to sports practice that day when she suddenly overcorrected a turn and flipped her car off of the side of the highway, killing herself, and putting her sisters in the hospital in critical condition. One of the most devastating parts about this accident is that it could have been avoided, as we were later informed that she was texting and driving. Though this incident was tragic, it changed my point of view on driving forever, because I was now shown a real life example of the consequences of reckless driving. Beyond changing just my point of view, it also changed my actions as from that day on I started being a lot more attentive when driving.

Sadly, this example is just one of many situations that could have been avoided with more extensive driving education. I believe one of the ways to counteract this epidemic is to start teaching driver's education in schools from an early age and to make drivers safety more of a priority as a society. Children's minds are extremely impressionable and malleable, so if schools started instilling the importance of driving safety early on, that would make a significant impact for when these kids reach driving age.

It is important to not only teach the rules of driving safely, but also teach how to be a good defensive driver. Not everyone is going to drive safely, but if people are given the knowledge on how to avoid dangerous drivers and car accidents, it could greatly decrease the amount of lives lost to car accidents; however, schools can not do all of this work alone.

It is up to society to continue teaching and reminding each other on the importance of driver safety. For example, driver safety needs to be more of a discussion at home and people need to set a good example for what safe driving looks like. This includes, driving with a seatbelt, driving the speed limit, focusing on the road, and never driving under the influence. Many unsafe drivers are a result of learned behavior, so if we all placed more of a significance on setting a good example of safe driving, there would consequently be safer drivers. I believe that all of this could drastically decrease the amount of lives lost to unsafe driving.