I’ve been driving for a bit over two years, where I got a learner's permit at fifteen and a half and my license at 16. I’m now 18 and drive everyday to school, to work, and back home. I drive a lot, and I’ve seen many accidents happen as well as experienced a couple accidents. Majority of the time, these accidents happen from one driver not paying attention. A few reasons that they aren’t paying attention could be because they are on their phone, they are talking to someone, eating food while driving and many more distractions. I learned to drive in Hawaii, which is a state that requires you to take a driver’s education course. I had a good instructor who taught me to be a defensive driver, and expect things to happen. To be prepared and have an escape route just in case something happens.
For example, if there is a car inching to pull out into the intersection and you are driving towards them, be prepared in case they don’t see you. Make sure you are going at a speed where you can react fast enough to be able to brake or turn out of the way if the driver does pull out. This also means that you should be aware of your surroundings. Be sure that there aren't any cars near you just in case you do need to swerve out of the way. A good way to be aware of your surroundings is to check your mirrors every 3-5 seconds to see where the cars are around you, and how fast they are going. I have avoided many accidents with this technique, where cars have pulled out in front of me unexpectedly. Luckily, I was paying attention and knew that there weren’t any cars in the lane next to me, so I had room to swerve over and I avoided hitting the person.
Driver education is very important, as it has taught me the basics of driving safely and responsibly. It teaches people how to understand proper traffic rules and how to handle different situations on the road. Teaching people about road safety helps them to make fewer mistakes that can lead to accidents. A good course can also teach drivers how to stay calm in a situation that might be tricky. Many times, accidents may happen because a driver may panic and not think correctly, causing an accident instead of avoiding it. Driver's education also teaches the small but important information, like how to keep a good distance away from a car depending on your speed. It helps to teach drivers how to make smarter and safer decisions, which can reduce crashes and save lives. Access to these courses should be expanded to make a big impact on road safety for everyone.
Living in a state where driver’s education is required to get a license, I feel that most people, if not everyone, should take a course. Some steps to help reduce the number of deaths from accidents is to encourage people to take courses. Promoting drivers education can help because it addresses the main causes of accidents. Having more people being educated means more people that are safe on the road, which leads to less accidents.
I have had a few incidents where I was involved in an accident as a driver. Most of the time, it was a driver not paying attention. One minor accident I had was when I was turning left into an intersection. In this instance, there were two lanes that could turn left at the same time. As I was turning left, the car next to me was turning left beside me, which is normal. After we both finished the turn, the car next to me drifted into my lane and made contact with my door. I told the person to pull over but they ignored me and drove off. I made sure to get their license plate, and I pulled over to check the damage. Luckily no damage or scratches were found, as it was a light tap from the other car, but it still made me realise that I needed to be more aware of the cars next to me. I’m assuming the driver wasn’t paying attention and accidentally drifted into me, or they tried lane changing and didn’t know I was there.





Something that I’ve learned from this accident is to try not to be directly beside someone while turning with them. There could be a chance that one of you may accidentally drift into the other lane, or just not know that the car is there. To avoid this, you can either speed up a bit to get ahead of them so that they see you, or slow down so that you are more behind them, just in case they accidentally drift over, or don’t take the turn well enough to stay inside the lines. Some drivers may also get confused with the lines on the road, and may not know which lane is theirs causing a driver to go into the wrong lane when turning.
Overall, driver’s education is an important aspect in decreasing the deaths from car accidents. Expanding the knowledge shared from these courses can overall help people become better and safer drivers on the road. Teaching drivers how to avoid accidents is crucial, which is why it should be easily accessible and possibly required.