Name: Madeline Glass
From: Port Jefferson Station, NY
Votes: 0
Unfortunately,
for high schools and drivers ed programs, using fear as a
tactic to make teens drive better isn’t the most effective method
that could be used. Sending a guy into gym classes to yell at
everyone about how stupid teens are when they drive and tell them
about all the teen’s he’s seen die in car accidents doesn’t
work when it comes to teaching safe driving. Driver safety isn’t
even brought up until kids get to the age that they would be getting
a permit. If schools were to bring it up to kids at five years old
instead of fifteen years old, drilling horror stories of traumatic
experiences into teens’ brains wouldn’t be necessary. Proper
education on driver safety would make people of all ages more aware
of the risks that come with driving, thus potentially leading to less
driving related deaths. The approach taken to teach safe driving is
more important than people realize. Insurance companies offer
discounts for defensive driving courses in addition to drivers ed
class.
Everyone
knows someone who’s done something stupid that they know they
shouldn’t do while driving. Personally, I’ve seen my parents and
my brothers use their phones while driving. My parents might shoot a
quick text to someone or my brothers decide to change the song that’s
playing on the aux cord. Simple things like that are a hazard while
driving. My mom started asking me to respond to her texts for her
while she drives, and I’m very proud of her for that. For myself, I
have a playlist that I start before I put my car in drive, so that
changing songs isn’t necessary while driving. When I drive with
friends, I offer to change the music, or answer their phone for them,
so that they continue to keep their focus on the road and the drivers
around us. If people could stay off their phones while driving and
just pay more attention to what’s happening around them, driving
would become safer, and being a driver would be safer, too.
