Driver's education is very important for making roads safer and reducing the number of deaths from driving. It doesn’t take a fancy study to prove this, just ask yourself this question: who do you think would be a more responsible and safe driver? Someone who’s never had formal training, or someone who’s taken the time to learn the rules of the road and knows how to be safe? It’s pretty obvious, right? Driver's education gives people the tools they need to handle the challenges of driving, thereby helping them to prevent accidents and save lives. This becomes even more clear when you look at real world examples and stories of teens involved in auto accidents, especially when those accidents lead to fatalities. Using my own state of Utah for example, in 2021 18 year old Jesse Titmus died in a car crash only a few months after graduating high school. It was because of his inexperience as a driver and his poor decisions to not wear a seatbelt and to speed, that he died. While I don’t know how involved Jesse was with driver’s education, I do know that driver’s education teaches new drivers exactly how to prevent situations like Jesse’s from ever happening to you.
We can also draw upon our own personal experiences to teach us the importance of driver’s education. I still remember a few months ago how I was riding in the passenger seat of my friend’s old Chevy pick up truck, and thinking to myself, “Oh! So this is how I’m going to die”. We were speeding and swerving around traffic on our way to a sleepover. About 3 or 4 passengers could have probably fit comfortably in that truck, but we packed in 6 like sardines. I think maybe one person was actually wearing a seatbelt. Taylor Swift music was blasting and everyone was screaming the lyrics. The driver split her attention between actually driving and texting on her phone, with both hands too! I remember taking in all of this, and imagining how I could have minutes left to live before we got into a horrible wreck. I remember imagining my parents getting a call or a visit from the police telling them that their daughter was killed in a reckless accident with irresponsible teenagers, and realized that of all the ways to leave this world, dying in some dumb auto accident was the last thing I wanted. Needless to say, I was really happy when we made it safely to my friend’s house. This experience really highlighted the importance of safe driving to me, and as I have gone through driver’s education myself, it’s clear how much driver’s education emphasizes safe driving. Maybe if my friend took driver’s education more seriously, we all wouldn’t have been in that dangerous situation.
I think there are a lot of ways anyone can be a better and safer driver, or even just help others to do the same. Ensuring that you’re in a safe environment both inside and outside the car is a big step in the right direction. Going back to my friend’s reckless driving story, the environment outside of the car was perfectly safe. There wasn’t any concerning weather or other dangerous drivers. But the environment inside the car made us prime targets for a car crash. There was an unsafe number of passengers and not everyone was wearing a seatbelt. With that fact alone, if we had crashed, the likelihood that one or more of us would have died or been seriously injured, would’ve been almost certain. We also created a distracting environment for our driver by playing loud music and screaming to it. The brain can never truly multitask, and giving it another thing to pay attention to instead of the road will never be safe. We were lucky enough to avoid any accidents, but not everyone will be able to say the same. Another step we can take in becoming a better and safer driver is to take initiative ourselves and be a good model to others. I know that if my friend had set an example, and had driven the speed limit, focused on driving, and created a safe environment in her truck, we all would’ve taken her seriously as a driver and followed her example. We would’ve been good passengers too and helped her be the best driver she could be. I firmly believe that if everyone can just ensure that the environment inside a car is safe and distraction free, and if we all take initiative in being good examples of safe drivers, auto collisions and fatalities will decrease.