Liza
Bright-Watson

DMV
Driving and Traffic School
7-24-19

Roadside
Angels

As
a child, I often craved knowledge and learned very quickly that
knowledge made me safer. Learning life skills, like driving, has kept
me safe over the years and prevented many accidents. This should be
the goal of all driving education, to keep drivers safe and prevent
accidents. If more people learned how to drive safely, perhaps there
would be a decrease in the deaths we see on the road. According to
the National Safety Council, the United States lost 40,000 lives due
to driving accidents in 2018, a 14% increase in the deaths seen in
2016. This disturbing trend could be made up of simply that,
accidents, but I suspect that there is a distinct lack of drivers
education involved.

While
in a car with one of my friends, I realized she was going a whopping
40 miles over the speed limit. When I alerted her to this and asked
her to stop, she simply chuckled and shook her head and said “it’s
not like anyone cares. Besides, it’s fine to go over the speed
limit if you don’t get caught.” I was shocked at her lack of
awareness. What if she had hit another car, or worse, another person?
I haven’t gotten in a car with her since. My friend had never had a
formal drivers ed course, she was only taught by her
parents before taking her test. This is where I think the problem
lies.

So
many of Americas driving students are not required to take classes
from formal educators. As long as they pass their test students are
allowed free reign on the road, even if they haven’t truly learned
the rules. No wonder my friend was alright with speeding so
egregiously, only concerned with getting caught, no one told her the
horrible repercussions of what would happen beyond being caught.
Every driver in America should be required to take formal driver’s
training from someone who truly knows the rules of the road and
understands the tremendous amount of life lost from careless,
reckless, and aggressive driving. In addition to this, drivers in the
United States should be constantly tested on their skills, at least
every three years, by professionals who can assess if they are really
ready to be responsible and safe on the road. As my mom once said,
driving is a privilege and not a right. If the average citizen cannot
handle the responsibility of life they take on when getting into a
car, maybe they cannot handle driving a car at all. It is up to every
person on the road, new driver or old, to help prevent the creation
of roadside angels. Every death can and should be prevented.