The Importance of Driver Education and Safety

The importance of drivers ed in reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving cannot be stressed enough. Teens age 15 – 20 without drivers ed are responsible for 91% of teen driver crashes (Source: https://driving-tests.org/driving-statistics/). This means that about 9 out of 10 teen accidents and car crashes could have potentially been avoided with more educated drivers. Steps need to be taken to reduce the drastic amount of car crashes and accidents occurring, because they are costing people their lives. There are many steps that can be taken but the most important is an increase in drivers ed. However, drivers ed for all ages not just new drivers. I propose that there be a mandatory, by law, driving refresher course that all drivers must complete once a year. This course would be a condensed version of the drivers ed that the new drivers complete. I think that making education mandatory for the drivers on the road, even just taking a small course once a year, would make a drastic difference in the amount of car accidents and devastating deaths that occur every day.

An experience that I have had that made this issue very close to my heart, was the devastating death of a fellow classmate his senior year of High School. His name was Keaton Bussell and he was the most outgoing, kind, Jesus loving person you would ever meet, but this was all taken away due to a misunderstanding of road laws. One day when Keaton was driving to work, he was stuck behind a slow driver on a one lane road. Keaton made the decision to cross the solid yellow line and try to pass the car in front of him, in hopes of getting to work on time. However, he was hit head on and passed away, devastating not just his family, but the entire school. To think that maybe if Keaton was better informed that he should not have tried to pass that cat in front of him maybe he would still be here today haunts me.

Steps that I take to be a better and safer driver are that I always enable the driving mode on my cell phone to disable all notifications while my vehicle is in motion to keep myself safe from distractions and also I have made it a personal rule of mine to never pass a car in front of me on a one lane road. Steps that I take to keep other drivers safe on the road are when I am riding with friends, my sister, or anyone is that I will not let them use their phone to distract them, I will always adjust the volume or temperature to make sure they have both hands on the wheel, and I will always ensure that we both have our seat belts on correctly to protect us in any emergency.