Vehicle related injuries and fatalities have only risen in the past 10-15 years. According to NSC Injury Facts, there were just over 36,000 vehicle deaths in 2009, and that number continued to rise, amounting to nearly 47,000 vehicle deaths in 2021. This shouldn’t be happening, especially with all the tools and knowledge we have readily available to us. All drivers need to be better educated, and we need to take steps to reduce this number.
Driver’s education, as far as the knowledge needed to pass the tests for a license, are important. However, driver awareness as a whole is much more important than most other prevention strategies. Drivers education shouldn’t just entail a majority of questions on road signs, and traffic laws. Drivers education needs to educate drivers on dangerous driving practices and the consequences they, sadly, so often lead to. It needs to educate drivers on more safe driving habits than it already does. This shouldn’t just apply to new drivers. Drivers of all ages and experience levels need to be continually tested and made aware of dangerous driving habits, ways to be safer on the road, and a brush up on traffic laws and road signs.
Many drivers are simply just ignorant or haven’t been reached in the right manner and therefore don’t care enough to make a change. Advertisements including television advertisements, streaming service advertisements, billboards, etc. need to be pushed out there more frequently to reach as many people as possible. The advertisements where people tell their real stories about their experiences or the effect impaired and dangerous driving had on them and/or their families are extremely effective. People can relate and be much more affected by feeling connected on a personal level with someone affected. Furthermore, these advertisements should be run on streaming services and cable television to spread awareness to as many people as possible. Also, billboards and light up freeway signs need to continue to push out messages discouraging driving distracted and impaired or display messages with real stories and/or real statistics, including people killed, amount for a DUI ticket which is anywhere from $390 to $5,000 plus fees and more, and people killed daily by dangerous driving which is 102 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Also, all new cars should add safety features such as informing the driver when they are practicing dangerous driving. Vehicles such as the Subaru Outback have countless safety features which would prevent so many vehicle related deaths and injuries. The Subaru Outback offers Subaru eyesight, pre-collision braking, cruise control assist, blind spot detection, lane change assist, smart rearview mirror, subaru driver focus distraction mitigation system; which acts as a co-passenger and notifies the driver when their head turns from the road for too long or continuously, and displays messages on the screen to keep the driver attentive and focused. New vehicles don’t necessarily have to have all of these features but many of them should be added to all new cars by manufacturers. It will save lives and prevent injuries on the roads.
Furthermore, drivers should be educated on what constitutes reckless and dangerous driving, what to do to drive safer, leading causes of vehicle related deaths, common driving distractions and why/how to avoid them, and how to be a safe and defensive driver. Many drivers only remember the necessary information until they take their drivers knowledge tests, rather than actually learning and building safe habits from the information. We need to make it a requirement to renew the knowledge tests periodically. The information is so readily available yet people won’t go out of their way to keep up with it unless something happens that directly affects them. Otherwise, until then, the statistics and facts about driving deaths and injuries that continue to grow are just that, a statistic. Every year or every other year, it should be a requirement to renew the knowledge tests with additional questions about safe driving habits and how to prevent unsafe ones.
To conclude, driver education plays an extremely crucial role in reducing the number of vehicle related deaths and injuries. We can all take steps to help play our part in lowering driving related injuries and fatalities. By giving drivers the tools they need to stay safe on the road and keeping those tools up every couple years, we can promote safer driving habits and discourage dangerous driving, in turn improving overall driver safety. By implementing the requirement for a knowledge test and safe driving habit test every couple years, we can promote safer roads for all. Furthermore, public awareness and real story advertisements on live television, streaming services, and billboards will only continue to reinforce safe driving habits and the reasons for them. Lastly, implementing more safety features into new cars will give drivers more tools to keep themselves, their passengers, and others on the road back home to their friends and families safe and sound.