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The Art of Driving

Name: Ethan Faulkner
From: Flowery Branch, Georgia
Votes: 0

James
Dean once said, “Take it easy driving – the life you save may be
mine.” Safety should be the top priority when handling a vehicle,
as it can be used as both a weapon and a means of transportation.
However, in a fast-paced world, safety is often disregarded and
neglected among drivers, especially the youth. With each passing day,
the number of vehicular deaths increase, as drivers choose reckless
shortcuts for safety rather than considering their actions.
Nevertheless, with the proper knowledge and installation of driver
safety, this present day problem can be conquered.

Drivers
education plays a key role in ensuring a driver is responsible on the
road and capable of handling situations that may result in life or
death. Reasonably speaking, drivers ed provides a vital
pathway for learning the rules of the road and when or when not to do
certain actions. According to the University of Nebraska, those who
had completed a drivers edal course had a 24% higher chance
of avoiding a fatal accident. It is crucial to the lives of drivers
that everyone completes a course of a minimum of 30 hours to ensure
they have a general idea of how to operate on the road. Furthermore,
drivers ed is not merely limited to courses, it also can be
obtained through experience. A common practice is for parents to
monitor and observe their children driving. The more one can
practice, ranging from parking to signaling, the better prepared one
will be when driving. However, before success can be achieved,
certain steps and processes should be taken. Firstly, the completion
of a drivers ed course should be federally mandated across
all states. To date, only 32 states require a completed driver’s
education course. As statistics have proven, drivers ed
significantly lowers the chance for one to be involved in a crash and
guarantees the knowledge of how to drive. Additionally, it is crucial
that parents stay active in the lives of their youth drivers to make
sure they are following protocol and obeying the laws of the road. It
is prevalent among teenager culture to have distant parents who are
not involved in students’ personal lives, so more parental
supervision and involvement will lead to smarter choices. Lastly,
heavier punishments for reckless driving should be implemented, not
only to ward off potential recklessness but to reform those who
return from a reckless driving incident. Most driving cases involve a
ticket and a slap on the wrist, however, punishments such as
revocation of a license for years or high fines could reduce the
amount of dangerous driving.

Personally,
I have never experienced an accident, but I do see reckless driving
among friends and fellow students every time I am on the road.
Ranging from distracted to impaired driving, these problems plague
our youth and pose a threat to all who drive. However, with enough
awareness (i.e sharing stories of those affected by reckless
driving), the number of deaths can be reduce greatly.