Driver education is essential for reducing the number of road deaths. Education helps us make better decisions like staying safe or living free. As a high school student, you face many choices. With peer pressure, you might consider improving your style, hair, or social life to fit in as a teenager. However, the most critical choice is to prioritize safety. We must understand the consequences of our actions to make informed decisions. In today’s technological age, many new things are accessible, and faster speeds have led to decreased patience. Additionally, current trends create a carefree environment. The trending phrase “YOLO” (You Only Live Once) encourages teenagers to live freely and without worries. However, being educated allows me to focus on making the right choices to increase my safety and reduce my carelessness. Without drivers ed, teenage drivers are 75 percent more likely to get a ticket, and 24 percent are more likely to be involved in a fatal crash.
Teenagers can take steps to reduce the number of deaths related to driving by obeying all laws and staying sober. Laws taken for granted, such as speeding and not wearing your seatbelt, can have serious consequences. Many people drive rashly and switch multiple lanes at quick speeds, which suddenly cuts people off or forces them to brake. The person in front might be able to break, but the person behind will crash into the back of the car. Many cases like these cost a lot of money and can endanger people’s lives. Staying at low speeds or the speed limit is the right mindset for reducing deaths, not the mindset that five mph higher is okay by law enforcement.
I have been guilty of unsafe driving myself. I never paid attention in class and absorbed myself in my thoughts rather than focusing on the road. One day, I was driving and running my daily errands, and suddenly, the light was red, but I wasn’t paying attention. I saw the light at the last moment and pushed the brakes to the floor. I hit the wheel hard, which hurt my body, but more importantly, I was shell-shocked and got a wake-up call to pay attention. The cars were quickly turning at high speeds, and I wondered what would have happened if I had continued. It would have been a massive crash that would have harmed me and the victim. Unfortunately, I didn’t need to imagine the situation; fifteen minutes later, I came upon another intersection and saw a car sitting helplessly in the middle, wrecked beyond repair. The front hood and bumper were torn off and damaged, and the crash exposed the vehicle’s inner workings, showing the damage’s severity. Seeing the parallel situations, I realized I need to be a safer driver and show that I am responsible for my safety and the community and drivers around me.
To make roads safer, I can take several steps focusing on responsible driving and promoting awareness among my peers and family. First, I will always obey traffic laws, including speed limits and seatbelt regulations. Additionally, I will minimize distractions while driving by keeping my phone away and avoiding multitasking, forcing my full attention on the road. It’s also important to plan my trips to reduce the temptation to rush. With friends, I can encourage and help my friends to realize the importance of sobriety. Many people do not wear seatbelts for convenience, but they risk your life for no reason. Instead, it is essential to keep our seatbelts on because it prevents us from moving around in the seat during a crash. The research shows that it accounts for 43 percent of car crash deaths. Similarly, many drivers are rushed to different locations, and being planned takes an enormous burden off our shoulders, and we can think clearly. It also becomes dangerous when we rush because it increases the chance of crashing with others. Sobriety is looked down upon in high school, but being educated and making the right choice helps protect ourselves and others despite the conflicting beliefs. Drinking while driving is very dangerous, and with education in driving schools, students learn that alcohol reduces the processing speed of our brains and blurs our vision, which is very dangerous while driving, increasing the chance of a crash and with a higher mortality rate.
All in all, driver education is very important for making the right decisions and preventing any dangerous actions in the future. Driver education is for the better, and it will improve our daily lives and encourage the safety of others around us. I hope that people will become more educated, responsible, patient, and safer on the roads to protect the community, help us achieve our goals on the road, and move on with our daily lives at fast speeds.