There is significant importance to driving education. If there are uneducated drivers on the road, it would cause a plethora of distress amongst all. When handbooks, testing to achieve the driving permit, and required time and experience are mandated, it helps to ensure drivers on the road will be safe. Educated drivers means they know the rules of the road, traffic laws, and how to ensure their safety as well as the safety of everyone around them. Most people must drive in order to get to their destination, whether it’s work, appointments, school, etc.  Deaths related to driving are tragic, so we must acknowledge this and take driving seriously.                                                                                                                                 To reduce the number of deaths related to driving, a potential step could be enhancing the requirements needed to pass a driver’s test. Perhaps making the paper tests longer and more extensive, requiring several answers to hypothetical questions and scenarios. For the driving portions, creating situations where the driver must react quickly and correctly, testing their ability. Driving is no joke, and it must be stressed how much stamina you need to drive safely and effectively. I am fortunate enough to have never been in any car accidents, but I have had my fair share of close calls. One incident stems from someone thinking that passing another car on a double line is okay. It, of course, is not, and my mother and I were coming the opposite way around a turn and the passing car barely got over in time. This situation would have obviously taken points off your driving score if you did this during your test.  Unfortunately, people still do unintelligent things on the road even if they have their license.                                      

Another instance, something that was not touched on during my driver’s test, is blind spots. Most whom I have been riding with (and myself when I am driving) check their blind spot when changing lanes on an interstate. There have been several instances where someone else didn’t check theirs and nearly hit the car I was in.  Which on an interstate going 60-70 miles-per-hour would have been devastating. Every driver's test needs to have this as part of the test, even if the test itself isn’t on the interstate. Everyone will still encounter an interstate at some point in their lives, and it’s important that they understand the significance of blind spots before they attempt to take on one.                                                                                                                                   I have had some scary experiences in the cars of people who do not follow certain rules of the road. One of my friends from high school was taking me to his house before a football game, and he ended up jumping 3 curbs, passing 2 people going the speed limit, and going to the other side of a busy road just for fun. I did not ride with him again. My version of fun is not endangering the lives of everyone around me. After talking with other people that had ridden with him, it seems to be a running theme that he is not a safe driver.                                                                                                                                 
There are several personal steps that I can take to help ensure the safety of everyone on the road. For one, when I make a mistake on the road, I would ask an adult family member what I should have done differently.  I would then reflect on that answer and do it differently the next time I encounter that situation. I would also encourage others to do the same, as asking questions about safety is never a bad thing. When riding with someone like my reckless friend (and believe me, I did this while he was driving) I comment on their driving. A lot of people believe that it is their car, and they are driving.  But that is no excuse to do anything recklessly and endanger everyone else.
                                                                                    
Finally, my biggest step would be sharing experiences. When we have a scary encounter on the road, a lot of times we tend to cover it up and pretend it never happened. I think we need to share these experiences and help each other to grow and improve when it comes to driving. We hope and pray these things don’t happen to us, but we shouldn’t ignore that they exist and that they could happen. When we share experiences, we open up conversation to things that we may have never thought possible, but after talking about a real life experience, we can potentially be prepared to avoid them better. Driving is a privilege, not a right, and the moment we ignore the sheer risks to this simple, everyday activity will be the moment we realize the true power those risks hold.