Teen driver safety is an important public issue because of the multiple fatalities that the lack of awareness and poor decision making has caused, being aware is the first step to putting an end to something that is harmful to our population. If information and data was shared more frequently like in school assignments and history with data from the past years or in social media posts it would force people to become aware of the driver safety issue. The role that drivers education plays on addressing driver safety would be a very significant role to teen drivers as their mentors, drivers education should put out articles of information on how many fatalities reckless driving or accidents have caused, drivers education can also make drills on what is to be done in case of emergencies or in accidents so that when teens get their licence they are well informed of the danger on the roads and consequences for their actions.
The biggest challenges that I believe teen drivers face today would be them making poor decisions while on the road. It is known that drinking and driving is a poor decision and ages from 15-20 is in the top percentage of drinking and driving fatalities. Another popular poor decision that teens tend to make is speeding. These poor decisions are due to the fact that their brain is not fully developed at their teen years, the brain is commonly done developing at the age of 25 (mid 20s). The part of the brain that is the last to develop is the frontal lobe but more specifically the prefrontal cortex, this part of the brain is the part that controls their decision making. Another reason as to why teens make poor decisions would be that teens are more susceptible to dopamine because of the lack of brain development at that stage. Beside the fact that teens brains are less developed it is also important to understand that teens are also less experienced in driving and being on the road. Lack of experience definitely plays a role in accidents on the road since these teens are just starting to drive and are not so familiar with the roads and laws. Despite the challenges that these teens face it is vital to acknowledge that challenges are meant to be broken and these teens can overcome these challenges, some ways that they can overcome these challenges is by informing themselves about the dangers and consequences of driving and it is bad to drink and drive or speed. Teens can also overcome these challenges by thinking twice before they act and reflecting on their actions so that they understand the gravity of their actions and how it can become fatal very fast and in many ways.
A second hand experience that i have experienced has been a car crash that my neighbor passed away from as well as her sister and her sister’s baby, the unfortunate incident happened late at night in the highway, my neighbor was driving in the freeway and someone else came on the opposite side of the road and my neighbor and everyone else died on impact because of the speed of the other car. For them to die instantly from the impact the other car would have had to come at an alarming speed in the freeway, it was later reported that the guy that caused the incident was drunk and under substances which is also referred as being “crossfaded”, The guy died in the hospital a couple days later from the crash. Something that I learned from this unfortunate accident was how quick someone can die and leave this world, so it is important to understand the consequences of your actions because the guy that caused the accident caused it because of his poor choices and his consequences cost him his life and 3 other innocent lives.
Some specific actions that teens can take to promote safer driving among the youth would be to post on their story how to drive safely and the importance of driving safely since posting on social media has a very big impact and influence in this generation. Something school can do to promote safer driving is making assignments and drills on steps on how to drive safely, how to notice a reckless driver and even how to prevent the incidents before they happen and lastly some ways that our communities can promote safer driving would be making billboards with phrases of why being aware is important or to not drink and drive.
Breaking this cycle of constant fatalities is vital to prevent deaths and poor choices when driving because these poor choices are not just wrong but they are costing people lives.