Many people often talk about the inexperience of teenagers on the road. As teens, we are told constantly to drive safely. Don’t drive drowsy, don’t drive drunk, be back before eleven, be always vigilant, never let your eyes stray from the road. Don’t drive four other teenagers at once, don’t listen to loud music, keep your hands on the wheel, don’t text, try not to call. We hear these things over and over and over again, hear horrifying statistics about teens causing a disproportionate number of fatal accidents, and yet teens across the country do the things they’re told not to do anyway. They drive distracted, drowsy, or drunk, and before they know it they have altered someone’s life forever. The truth is that it can change from all fun and games to a harrowing life-or-death experience in a split second. Evidently, high-quality driver education is critical for teens to avoid accidents that result from driving irresponsibly.
But adults cause accidents too. It is true that teens have a disproportionately high accident rate partly because they are new at driving and therefore relatively inexperienced. Their instincts are not as good as adults’, and they are worse at fully realizing the danger of certain situations. Yet in my personal experience, I have seen adults care less about driving safely than teens. For example, I see my mom driving recklessly from time to time, lane weaving to get somewhere faster, driving at high speeds, and not always checking when she changes lanes. As another example, one of my teachers has admitted to checking emails while driving to school. Even more horrifying is that sometimes when I look out my school bus window at the cars around us, I see adults with one hand on the wheel, looking at their phones. That is incredibly scary to see, not only because they could cause an accident with another driver, but because they could cause an accident with a school bus full of children!
Never have I witnessed any of my friends on their phones while driving or recklessly weaving around cars to get somewhere faster. It seems that time has inured some experienced drivers to the possible effects their actions could have on others. Although teens may be less experienced than adults at driving, both adults and teens can be careless with driving because it is second nature to one and so new to the other.
That is why I believe driver education is crucial for both teens and experienced drivers. For teens, driver education helps them gain knowledge about the rules of the road and proper driving technique as they are learning to drive, making them safer drivers. The current curriculum is informative, but it could be improved. In my driver education class, we learned a lot about driving technique and the rules of the road, but we did not get enough exposure to the consequences of driving poorly. I believe that special lessons about specific situations such as driving while texting, while otherwise distracted, while drowsy, and while under the influence of drugs or alcohol should be implemented in driver education. Although we learned a little bit about the consequences of each of these actions, we could have spent more time on them and done a project on them ourselves rather than passively watching videos about them. I think the reason many teens fail to heed their parents’ warnings about driving is that they don’t believe deadly situations that happen to some people when they drive poorly will happen to them. Driver education should not just be about teaching new drivers the rules of the road; it should also be about instilling a healthy dose of caution in drivers about how their actions could impact their own and other people’s lives through thorough lessons, not just a few videos. In this way, driver education could be more effective and lessen reckless driving from teens. Implementing these changes would require grassroots campaigning and reaching out to state and local representatives, but I fully believe it could be done.
Driver education is also valuable for experienced adults, who might lose that healthy dose of caution because they are so used to driving. Though formally requiring a second driver education for already licensed drivers by law might be difficult to implement, there are other steps we could take: for example, having parents who are teaching their teens how to drive take a course to refresh them on good driving technique that they can impart to their kids. Television and online ads may also help refresh veteran drivers’ awareness of the damage they might cause by driving irresponsibly, as well as build new drivers’ knowledge. Social media campaigns may be effective as well. And of course, billboard ads or road signs are always a useful reminder to drivers to stay vigilant and drive safely.
Car accidents cause too many deaths each year. Let us reduce them by implementing a truly comprehensive driver education for new drivers and by reminding veteran drivers that experience does not preclude the possibility of careless driving.