Brennan Gillgrist All growing up I was always taught that safe driving is one of the most important things to learn. When I was around four years old my mom got into a car crash while me and my younger brother were in the car. It wasn’t her fault, but the effects of the other driver’s poor driving changed my family for the next year. While neither me nor my brother were injured, our car was destroyed, and my mom had to be rushed to the hospital. Because of this she was unable to raise my younger brother as a baby for months, and it was one of the saddest things she has experienced. All of this happened because one driver didn’t care for driver safety practices and pulled out in front of us. The importance of safe driving is very important to me because knowing that thousands of people suffer the same problem my mom did is heartbreaking and knowing that many of those situations are even worse than mine makes me really feel for those families. More people need to be educated on why safe driving is important because solving this problem could greatly reduce the number of deaths and heartbreaks in America. By making drivers education a mandatory program through the DMV, more people can be driving ready when they get their license. A simple test cannot prove that someone is ready to drive but enough practice with an instructor could be the difference between thousands of deaths. Fatal crashes are most common in ages 16-17 and 80+. By changing the driving age to 18 and requiring mandatory driving tests every 2 years following ones 80th birthday, we could greatly reduce the number of fatal car crashes each year. In my personal life, I can make sure to always drive the speed limit and practice defense driving every time I get behind the wheel. By doing this I can ensure that my driving won’t add to the growing number of casualties each year and I can be the change that starts solving the major problem in America.