Name: Susan Webber
From: Tempe, AZ
Votes: 0
Most
of us agree that driving is a privilege, not a right. If this is
indeed the case, then why do adolescents expect
to
get their license at sixteen? Why can anyone of the proper age take a
single test, a single class, and earn a lifelong license to drive?
Drivers ed is essential to limiting the number of accidents on
the road, however, we cannot simply target citizens when they are
young. To be effectual, drivers ed needs to be reinforced
throughout our lives, and harshly. Most professional drivers, such as
technicians, truck drivers and police officers, must pass critical
driving tests every few years to ensure they know and follow the
rules of the road.
Many
of my friends are horrific drivers. Apparently, because they have
this little plastic card allowing them to drive, they can do
everything at once. Talking on their Bluetooth, taking selfies on
Snapchat, slurping a Chik-fil-A cookies-n-cream shake and steering
the wheel with their knees. All because they were able to drive
around the neighborhood block safely for one driving test.
Five
years ago, a 16-year-old blonde babe misses her entrance to the gym
and blindly u-turned mid-road. Obviously not understanding that you
are supposed to drive inside the white lines painted on the asphalt,
she smashes into the front end of my mom’s blue Dodge Stratus.
First, my mutt, Buddy, flies through the windshield of our car. My
mom cries out in anger and pain, looking down at her broken arm in
terror. Pulling my family together on the side of the road, I see the
girl who caused it all open her door. Phone in hand, she exclaims
“Oopsie! My bad!” and continues to call her Mommy instead of the
police. This girl was beyond a bad driver, she should not have been
on the road in the first place.
Bad
drivers should not be drivers at all, as proper driving education and
tests would weed out those who are incapable of driving safely. The
party girl drunk at midnight wouldn’t just make the decision of
calling an Uber rather than driving home herself, she wouldn’t have
a license to drive in the first place. The guy who enjoys tailgating
and cutting others off on the highway, never bothering to signal lane
switches, would be on the public bus next to the rest of his fellow
unsafe drivers. Safe driving should not be a recommendation, a
reminder on a sign at the side of the road, a second thought after
the crash. Safe driving is a requirement, the only type of driving
there should be. Without it, you shouldn’t be driving at all,
period.
