Growing up, I was always able to determine which intersections in my area were the riskiest driving. Some of it was based on the visibility both ways on the road or which one tends to be the busiest at certain times, but the most striking evidence would be the flowers and wooden crosses that would be on the sides of the roads. Dates marking the wood, letting everyone who passes the intersections know what has happened due to reckless or uninformed driving. One death is far too many if you come from a community as small as mine, where everyone knows everyone, so when one person dies, a community mourns. To think that a teen driver could be the next person in our local obituary is terrifying, and that is why it is important to address the problem: the lack of teen driving safety in rural communities.
Across the country, teens are more likely to be involved in violent or even fatal car crashes, with more of them happening in rural communities in comparison to urban communities. There are a number of high risks involved when driving in rural communities, such as driving longer distances, large machinery and semis on smaller county roads, and rougher road conditions, which makes it difficult for young drivers to navigate. By promoting driver’s education, we are able to establish critical skills with the young drivers to help them be safe on the road. However, there are a number of distractions that can affect a driver’s attention and knowledge of the road.
An issue that has become prominent within the past decade has been cell phone usage while driving. Though the progression of technology has created positive impacts in our everyday lives, there are also the negative outcomes that come with it. When texting or calling is involved, teens are five times more likely to be in a fatal car crash. Checking your phone for five seconds is five seconds you are not paying attention to the road, and sometimes that is all it takes for something to happen. Technology has also been a curse in regards to drivers education. I did all my driver’s education through an online program, and in my opinion, it was easy to skip on through the lessons and complete the tests. Procrastination is something my peers would constantly talk about when driver’s education was brought up, as most of us did not actively pursue doing it because it was online, and the only people holding us accountable were our parents.
A common problem among teen drivers is the peer pressure they face. Sometimes it may be intentional, such as their friends telling them to blast the music in their car. Other times it can be unintentional, like feeling embarrassed that you drive in silence because you want to fully pay attention to the road. No matter how it presents, it is causing young teenagers to not be fully aware of what is happening around them when they are driving. We should be teaching all teen drivers that following defensive driving protocols is not something to be ashamed or embarrassed about because you are ensuring that yourself and others on the road are being safe.
Inaccessible driver education is a growing problem in rural communities such as mine. In the past, schools would have driver's education already included into the school curriculum, which made it easy for every teen to have access. However, in recent years, driver's education has begun to become private and spread out in various counties. There are two driver’s education courses that are available in my county, with very limited spots open, and with a cost of upwards of $400. Coming from a low income community, a lot of families cannot afford the cost to give their children driver’s education. This is a problem that needs to be addressed, along with how driver’s education does not give a lot of information about rural road driving as well
During my time of driver’s education, I did not learn about the dangers of rural road driving. Everything I learned was through my parents, who learned from their parents, and so on. However, not everyone learns those dangers, and they should be addressed in their driver’s education. Some dangers include: large farm machinery, lower visibility due to corn, semis driving on small roads, gravel driving, inadequate signage, poorly kept up roads, wildlife, and so much more. We should be addressing these issues, especially in my community, due to it being a large factor of car crashes in rural areas.
We as a community should make an effort to provide safety promotions to help our teenagers stay safe on the road. To start, I think we need to make driver’s education in our community accessible, especially since we are a middle to low income community. Most families can not afford to send their children through driver's education, and we should take measures to help those individuals. Whether it be through volunteering or through a school course elective, a change like this can make all the difference between life or death. Our local law enforcement or community organizations can come together to offer teen driving safety lessons, such as a public event on all the ways you can stay safe on the road. Our county already does a program called “Every Fifteen Minutes”, which was implemented to inform teenage drivers about risks you are taking if you drink and drive. I think we can build on this program to teach about how the smallest of distractions can risk your safety on the road, and how ten seconds to check your phone can cause a life altering event.
My hope is that by making all these ideas possible, then the rate of teens involved in car crashes will decrease. I wish that one day, as I’m driving the back roads of my community, I will see the number of wooden crosses dwindle. Instead of mourning as a community, we rejoice together knowing that the ones we love are safer on the road.