I think everyone getting a proper driver’s education is very important for one main reason: consistent safety all around. Everyone who is driving had to have some type of driver’s education to get a license. Most of us learned from a driving school and/or handbook and practicing with those who already knew the rules. This process is in place for a reason. Everyone needs to know the rules of the road to keep people as safe as possible. This kind of driving instruction being pretty standard is also important, because it allows people in the United States to be able to operate a vehicle safely anywhere in the country. This is critical for order and safety. If there were no set rules for how and where to drive, there would be chaos galore and even more vehicle related injuries and fatalities than there already are.
Even though most of us had to take driver’s education, I do not think that’s what is most important for reducing driving-related deaths. Yes, a lot of it comes down to rules and laws, but it’s the drivers who must follow the rules. Often accidents and driving-related deaths come down to carelessness – whether that is driving too fast (and sometimes too slow) or driving distracted. Of course, there are rules against those things, but people must follow the rules. For example, several years ago one teenaged pedestrian and a younger child on a bike were killed in my neighborhood in two separate incidents. One was blamed on speed and the other seemed to be caused by the driver’s view being blocked and not seeing the teenager on foot. While one was due to someone’s carelessness and other seemed to have just been a bad accident, lawmakers wanted to do something. The rules and laws were already in place, but they had gotten complaints about too-fast driving and now they felt forced to take action. They decided that our neighborhood needed new and more speed bumps and a new traffic light to help ease and control traffic and keep the community safe. It’s clear that although we MUST have rules and laws, sometimes structures (lights, stop signs, speed bumps) are also needed to help reduce the number of deaths related to driving.
I recall being in the car with my mother when she had an accident. She crashed into a truck that was in front of us. No one was hurt, but that was scary from my little brother and me. We were able to see my mother stay pretty calm though, and the man she hit was nice enough to check on us and not be as angry as I am sure some people could be when they get hit. My mother thinks she was tired when she hit that truck. I now realize that that is why, when I began driving, she talked to me a lot about getting rest and not driving sleepy. Also, about a year after I started driving, I got into a small accident. I, too, ran into someone. I am very fortunate it wasn’t a large accident, and no one was hurt, but it was very stressful, nonetheless. When I think back about what went wrong, I know I was too close to the truck in front of me, so I had less reaction time than I needed. This was another instance of the rules being there, but I needed to be paying better attention to ensure I was doing everything properly. My mother helped me some on the phone, and then my father came to help me handle the situation. I damaged my mother’s car and had to pay for more than half of the repairs. I definitely learned from that experience because, worse than having to give my mother hundreds of dollars, I was frightened by the thought of getting hurt and hurting someone else. I now make sure I am paying attention well at all times; I have not had any accidents since.
I am a pretty good driver for the most part, but I know I have improved a lot in the few years I have been driving. At first, my biggest issue was nervousness. This mainly cropped up when it came to parking and lane merging and switching. After enough practice going to and from my high school, the community college where I took a class, and my swim team practice, I became used to driving in different scenarios and conditions (rain, traffic, etc.) and on different roads (highways, residential areas, etc.). Even though I was getting more skilled, I did have some bad habits I had to break. One of the biggest was having on Youtube videos while I was driving. I didn’t stare at the screen and I kind of thought of it like a podcast, but I know it was a distraction because the temptation to look was there. When I finally accepted the possible danger and did what I knew was right, I stopped putting on videos, and I now stick to listening to the radio or streamed music.
I will continue to follow the rules and depend on the skills I’ve developed over the years. When I am home from school, I am also sometimes responsible for driving my little brother around. I want to be a good example for and to keep him safe too. I know the rules – it takes not being distracted, paying attention to the speed limit, watching the other cars around me, keeping my eyes on the road, and hoping and praying that everyone else is doing the same.