This is Your Future

Every time you get behind the wheel of a car you are putting everyone using the roads in danger. How you handle this responsibility determines the type of driver you are. Do you apply lipstick in the mirror and drink your morning cappuccino when you’re driving? Do you keep your hands on the wheel, or do you sneak a text here and there? It is not for me to judge what the right way to drive is, but putting the lives of others in more danger than driving already entails is incredibly irresponsible.

We need to teach our students to drive responsibly to ensure that our roads are safe or our experienced drivers will not even fully understand the consequences of their actions behind the wheel. Imagine a city full of uneducated drivers: crazy traffic problems, countless wrecks, and who-knows-what-else is waiting behind the next street corner. Safe drivers avoid damage to any part of the driving system--the people driving, their cars, and even the traffic patterns put into place to ensure every driver’s safety. Comprehensive drivers ed is the beginning of solving the root cause of car accidents, and the importance of this first step is not to be overlooked.

Educating those using the roads is the most important step in keeping the roads safe and reducing the number of accidents. It is my opinion that enforcing comprehensive drivers ed, spanning all the way from traffic laws to how to handle your car in dangerous situations, should be changed. Not only should drivers ed take place in the beginning of learning to utilize a vehicle, but also once every five years. This will ensure that drivers are up-to-date with current traffic laws as well as the newest auto technology. They will also be refreshed on how to handle situations in which are not common, but dangerous.

As a teenager I have experienced far too many people driving irresponsibly. My friends, inexperienced but frequent drivers, find driving to be fun rather than dangerous. They feel that driving is a part of life, and as long as they have control of the car the majority of the time they will be fine. They are worried that if they go drinking somewhere they will have to drive home rather than their parents find out what they were doing. They feel that they will have good enough control of their bodies to operate a few thousand pound machine without harming anyone. As someone who has experienced a car wreck I am certain this is untrue. I was in the car when my mother was driving and was hit by a 16 year-old boy. He was totally sober and simply had a lapse of judgement. He turned left as we were continuing on through the intersection. If this could happen to a sober person, I am certain it can happen to someone who is under the influence.

As teenagers I feel we can pay more attention to our surroundings, lower the volume of our speakers, and stay off of our phones and away from being under the influence. The fewer distractions we have on the road, the fewer chances we have to cause someone serious harm. I feel that in this day and age without more continuous drivers ed we should take matters into our own hands and focus on driving more than our own self-interest. The lives of everyone around us depend on it. It is our future that we hold in our hands and not only the steering wheel.