Driver education plays a critical role in reducing the amount of deaths from driving due to its ability to teach skill development, defensive driving, awareness of the road, and encouragement of safe habits.
Driver education aids a new driver in a variety of essential skills in order to be a safe driver. Vehicle control permits you to grasp how to steer, brake, and accelerate all while maintaining control of the car. Learning traffic laws, including slower traffic keeping to the right, learning road signs, signals, and following the speed limit creates a better understanding of what is expected as you drive on the road. Along with traffic laws, checking for hazardous things in the road and the mirrors in the car practices environmental awareness. Above all, defensive driving is the key to establishing secure roads to protect all drivers. Texting, calling, and eating while driving all prove to be significant in practicing defensive driving. Driver's education is a catalyst to invoke safe driving habits.

Darkness.

A light blue blob that slowly forms into my mother with blood on her shirt and a bloody rag in her hand, that she got from I don’t know where; I try to get up but she tells me not to and pushes me to lay back down.

Darkness again –

 And then a paramedic cutting open my favorite shirt; purple with pink glittery ballerina slippers on it. I'm in distress about the shirt being torn apart and then,

Darkness again. 

September 23, 2016, just three days before my ninth birthday.  A car going 45 mph had ran a stop sign and hit me. It was a warm and sunny day like no other. I had spent the day at a church event and later, my mom had decided to visit her boyfriend. Due to the weather, my mom, her boyfriend, his family and I decided to go on a walk. We were walking across a crosswalk and then darkness.

Later, I would find out the details of what happened. I would wake up, bleary eyed and confused with a concussion, scrapes along my thigh, a sprained ankle, and a fractured pelvis. My mom was in a chair at my bedside in a dimly lit hospital room.
The aftermath of my accident would involve weeks of rest, physical therapy, meetings with our lawyer, checkups at the doctor, and visits from friends and family. It was a terrible accident that should have killed me, but I survived.
Never once did I think I would ever been in an accident, much less one where I wasn’t even in a car. Sometimes I reflect on the accident and I’m grateful to have experienced it. Not only do I have firm beliefs about distracted driving, but it also brought me closer to my friends and family.
To be a better driver, I can make an effort to limit distractions while driving. For instance, putting my phone in the backseat or out of sight; If it’s out of sight, it's out of mind. I can also set my GPs or music before I start driving to maintain focus on the road. When the weather is bad, driving slower, braking earlier, and making sure the headlights are on are necessary to be a safe driver. Consistent maintenance checks keep your car running smoothly, protecting yourself and others. Staying patient and remaining calm helps you maintain a clear head behind the wheel. If you are tired or have been drinking you should avoid driving, both impair reaction time and clouds the driver's judgment.
Staying informed about laws is not only increasing my knowledge about road safety but I will be able to help others be informed about the laws as well. Through this I can be a role model, being a role model is not just about what a person says but by their actions. Bringing awareness to issues such as drunk driving, the lack of use of seatbelts, and texting and driving encourages others not to do the same.
Driving is a privilege, one that not everyone deserves. Being able to drive can be freeing, but it can also be enabling. Remember that when you drive, it is not just about getting from one place to the next. It is about anticipating what other drivers will do, having a fast reaction time, being on the lookout for children, cyclists, and other pedestrians. Do not be someone that takes a life because you weren’t able to drive without being safe.