Take Action. Stay Safe!

Driver Education Initiative 

Christina Purnell

7 August 2019

Take Action, Stay Safe!

By far the most riveting aspect of transitioning from childhood to adulthood is driving. Driving comes with the freedom of being able to go wherever you want without having to worry about someone else’s schedule and availability to take you. However, driving also comes with a great responsibility because no matter how freeing it is it can be fatal to you and others if you aren’t careful and educated about road safety. A way to ensure cautiousness and the utilization of safe driving in order to reduce deaths on the road, all young and new drivers should take a drivers education class.

Driver’s education is essential in decreasing road fatalities because it educates new drivers about the importance of road safety and warns them about the possible outcomes of reckless driving. Many drivers don’t take the caution they should when driving. They become distracted by their phones or may even drive under the influence. By taking early action in educating new drivers and the generations to come after of road safety we can decrease the amount of highway fatalities and increase the caution of drivers in order to reduce accidents.

I have never been driving and been in a car accident personally, but I have been passenger to a few. Someone who used to be with my family a lot and therefore drove us many places had a terrible habit of shifting his eyes from the road to make eye contact with people when they spoke to him when he drove. One day, we were on the way home from church and he was talking to my mom. At the same time as he averted his eyes from the road, the car in front of us made an abrupt stop. By the time he looked back at the road it was too late to stop, and we rammed into the back of a woman’s car who was leaving our church as well. My mom’s brand-new Audi was totaled and when the police arrived at the scene, he refused to admit that it was his fault. Instead, he tried to blame the woman for stopping too hard even though he was the one who wasn’t paying attention. That experience taught me to never take my eyes off the road and to be cautious of my surroundings. If our youth is encouraged to take drivers ed, which is offered at most schools, then our roads will be much safer for young drivers and everyone else.