We Can Improve Driver Safety

Driver education is absolutely imperative in reducing the number of driving related deaths and injuries. New and upcoming drivers should be required to take and pass a driver’s ed course prior to being allowed to test for their driver’s license. Requiring this course for new drivers could dramatically reduce the number of deaths while driving. In the study, “Driver’s ed significantly reduces teen crashes, tickets” by researchers Ian Newman and Duane Shell from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln discovered that, “Young drivers who have not completed driver’s education are 75 percent more likely to get a traffic ticket, 24 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal or injury accident and 16 percent more likely to have an accident…” These statistics are almost shocking at first, but they make sense. New drivers who are just given the state-mandated pamphlet (that–let’s be honest–no one reads) and allowed to test and pass with a low score can be dangerous out on the road, as they have no real knowledge of the rules and proper conduct. However, if driver’s ed is added into high schools and other institutions around the country, there will be an actual, statistical difference in the amount of driving related deaths per year. Again from Newman and Shell’s study, they found that, “2.1 percent of the driver’s education group was involved in an accident that caused injury or death, compared to 2.6 percent of those who did not take driver’s education.” While these numbers are not as shockingly different as the first statistics, after several years of driver’s education classes, the number of driving related injuries and deaths should become even lower. Another benefit of having accessible driver’s ed courses would be helping individuals over 16 get access to learn how to drive. I have a friend that is going on 20 years old, but does not have her driver’s license. She also has no access to materials to learn how to drive and her guardians refuse to take her out to learn. If our high school had offered driver’s ed, or if there were other close, affordable places that she could learn to drive, she would not be in this situation right now.

Personally, I have never been in a very big, serious crash. However, around mid-January this year, I got in a small accident. Allow me to set the scene for you.

It was six in the evening and I had just gotten off of a grueling twelve hour shift at work. The sun had already set about an hour ago, and it was starting to get dreadfully cold out. I turned on my car and shivered in the driver’s seat as I waited for it to warm up enough to drive. All was well as I was driving home. My mind began to wander, as I had taken this road more times than I could count, thinking about things that I had to do after I got home–remembering I promised to help my grandmother at church at seven. I slowed down as I got to the intersection before my house. I had a green light, so I eased into a left turn, slowly and steadily. But in the distance, some flashing lights caught my eye… While I was distracted, I hit a huge bump–which ended up being the cement block that the traffic light is stuck into. I tried to push the brakes but as I pushed the pedal, I was met with no resistance from it, and it went straight down to the floor. My brakes did not work anymore. Thankfully the road was uphill, so I tried my best to stay calm and guide myself up the hill and to the side of the road so that the car would stop rolling. As soon as I was safely stopped in the grass, I called my mom with tears in my eyes. She picked up the phone in the middle of the salon. I had forgotten she was getting her hair cut that night. Since she was in the middle of things, she said she would call my brother to come check the damage and pick me up. After I got off the phone I worked up the courage to take a look outside and see what happened to my car. I walked around to the right side of my car, only to notice that the entire front, right wheel was missing. I looked to the bottom of the intersection, and there it was. Just sitting next to the right turn lane for the cars going east. I broke down into tears. I had never done something like this before and I was mortified. So many people ended up stopping by too. People from the hair salon that overheard my phone call, my brother, my grandparents, my mom eventually… Everyone had gathered around to witness my huge whoopsie-daisy. Then, after all of that, I still ended up going to church to help my grandmother at seven. My car was undrivable. I got sent back to college without a car and for a few months, I depended on my (absolutely lovely) roommate to let me hitch a ride if I needed to.

This accident taught me a lot. After I got my car back, I have been so careful around turns and curbs. I learned that cars are not actually indestructible like I thought they were and that bad things just do not just happen to other people. I learned that I actually need to be very careful on the road. The reason I think that I had these misconceptions is that I never had a driver’s ed course. I was just given that super thick pamphlet (that I did not read) and barely passed my driver’s test. Some steps that I can take to be a better driver are to pay more attention to the road and be more aware of my surroundings. This would have helped me prevent my accident from happening if I had just kept my eyes on where I was going instead of those distracting lights off in the distance. Being more aware will not just help me be a better driver, but it will be better for those around me as well. Because if I am being a safer driver, I am making the road a safer environment overall.

Works Cited

Newman, Ian and Shell, Duane. “Study: Driver’s ed significantly reduces teen crashes, tickets.”

UNL News Releases, 13 Aug 2015,

https://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2015/08/13/Study:+Driver’s+ed+significantly+reduces+

een+crashes,+tickets. Accessed 15 Mar 2023.