The Safety Within Education

Each year there are countless deaths due to car accidents throughout the globe, leaving families world wide heart broken and mourning the loss of their loved ones. Amber Heard once said,”My very best friend was in a car accident when I was 16 years old. That was the hardest blow emotionally that I have ever had to endure. Suddenly, you realize tomorrow might not come. Now I live by the motto, ‘Today is what I have.’” Loss of loved ones is undoubtedly incredibly difficult, and even traumatic in some cases, and can even cause people who were not directly involved in the accidents to have trauma relating to it. The safety of drivers, their passengers, and even pedestrians is so important when it comes to driving, everyone is at risk of getting in an accident even if they aren’t in a vehicle at the time. The safety of the people is why it is important to properly educate current and future drivers of the world on driver’s safety and how to drive safely, so accidents occur less.

To begin with, there should be a mandate for people with their licenses to retake their driver’s knowledge test and the driving test every 5 to 7 years. This will make sure people who are driving keep the knowledge they gained from their driving classes fresh, it can be easy to forget the various material taught throughout course(s), along with making sure they are driving safely. If someone is not driving safely during the driving test, their licenses can be held and they can be put into driving courses again to teach or reteach them how to safely drive, which they will be given their licenses back, or renewed if needed, when they pass the test. I have personal

experience with bad drivers in my family, my aunt and uncle and their oldest son, my cousin, are all examples of it. They often stay to one side of the lane, whether they are on the yellow lines or the white lines on the edge of the road, sometimes almost causing an accident. Their recklessness of swerving around on the road is why it is important that these tests should be retook, to ensure competence.

Next, is to require the elderly drivers, those who are 50 years old or older, to take annual eye exams and hearing exams, to test their sight and hearing and taking their medical history more into consideration when it comes to their capability. My grandparents from my father’s side, both of which suffer from different stages of Parkinson’s, drive. My grandfather has both Parkinson’s and Dementia, but used to get on the road occasionally and drive to various places, which was scary for my family to witness considering how he was in the advanced stages of these illnesses. It took a long time before the doctor deemed him unfit to drive himself places and reported it, by then my grandfather could have already gotten into accidents had my parents and grandmother not stopped him when they could. There are undoubtedly millions of other people who have family members that suffer from these diseases who are also still driving, which is dangerous for anyone involved, including pedestrians. Reviewing medical history should be an important part of getting a license. Just because people present themselves to be fully capable does not always mean they will be, especially if left unchecked. It could lead to mentally degraded people with no sort of control of their bodies and minds to cause serious accidents and hurting if not killing people without realizing and/or meaning to.

Lastly, to ensure the safety of other drivers is to enforce the driving tips and rules while driving and to be prepared for an accident, mentally and physically. It is important to follow the

rules of the road not just because the law says so, but for the driver and the people in their surroundings to be safe as well. There are a significant amount of things one could do to ensure they are prepared and safe on the road, such as keeping distractions to a low if not completely cut out, keep the vehicle clean, make sure the speed limit is not being exceeded and be aware of the environment, separate any possible risks between the driver and the vehicle, get vehicles regularly checked to make sure there are no problems, keep tools, jumper cables, and a spare tire in the vehicle at all times. It is important to keep checking different vehicle laws as well, especially if the vehicle in question is being modified. There are certain vehicle modifications that are illegal, and for good reason. For example, in South Carolina they outlawed what was called the “Carolina Squat”, which is normally a truck modification that has the front raised and back of the vehicle lower to the ground. It was impossible for drivers to be able to properly see and created a massive blind spot in front of them, which made them a danger to other drivers on the road.

In conclusion, there are many things minor about the driving process that are imperfect and can be fixed, with the requirements of retaking both the drivers knowledge and driving tests, annually testing the elderly and taking medical history more into consideration, and simply implying the rules of the road and different driving tips into daily driving. There are plenty of people out there who should not be able to drive, whether it be because of illness or incompetence, which should not be left unchecked. There are lives being left in the hands of drivers behind the wheel, whether they feel that weight or not, they should always make sure to be safe and think of themselves and the others around them. In order to make the roads safe, the

drivers need to be kept in check to make sure they are capable of being safe, which is why driver’s education is important along with regular doctor visits, to keep families safe.