Taking Education to the road

Driver Education Initiative

Diego Ramirez

Victorville, California

The reasoning on why drivers ed is required in the state of california for teens age 15 ½ to 17 ½ is to make sure that teenagers get the proper education on how to drive. There have been many crashes over the numbers of years due to irresponsible and reckless driving. I believe that drivers ed is a fantastic way to learn how to drive correctly, because as for myself, I have seen people in my life drive reckless and could have been prevented if they took some sort of drivers ed.

Over the years, driving has been so bad that studies result in 1.25 million people dying from various car crashes every year1. Surprisingly, most of these crashes are at the hands of teenagers. According to the California DMV Teenagers are between 2 and 4 times more likely to be involved in an accident that results in a fatality or injury.2 In order to reduce the number of deaths relating to driving, there needs to be more hands on and knowledge based requirements. For Example, a person who is trying to obtain a California driver's license needs to have more hands on work with more behind the wheel driving lessons, because anybody can drive a car, but the hard part is if they know how to drive the car correctly. And so I believe with more hands on practice, the rates of death regarding death will reduce gradually. In my opinion, I think that the written test to get a permit is really good, because no anybody can answer those questions correctly and so I think that the written portion is a fantastic way to make sure the person who is trying to get a license is fully qualified.

I fully support exploring ways to reduce the damage done by irresponsible drivers. Unfortunately, I have seen one of my family members acting without regard for themselves or people around them first hand. In 2013 my Dad got in a car accident due to him driving under the influence. The whole experience with seeing the car totalled and all his injuries was traumatizing. Weeks after the incident it was still in the back of my head because of how horrific it was. Months of physical therapy overloaded his schedule which did not allow him to work for ten months, affected our family.

At the end of the day I tell myself that this all could’ve been prevented, not with more driving classes, but by being a more responsible driver. Luckily no one was hurt, but if there were victims that have been injured the accident would have resulted in terrible consequences.

Everyday that I drive I try to be the best driver that I can be. I think that some steps to help other people to become a better and safer driver is to take extra courses maybe at a community center to educate people who might have questions regarding the proper way to drive. I think for me to become a better driver is to have patience and help my peers around me with questions they might have by showing them with words or hands on.

Works Cited