The Impact of Being a Safe Driver

It’s almost as though I was predisposed to being a reckless driver or have major road rage since I grew up in the DMV and was taught to drive by my mother who grew up in Massachusetts. Seeing aggressive drivers on a day to day basis, I thought that was just what you needed to do to get to where you were going, however after completing drivers ed I’ve learned that that is entirely untrue. I live in Maryland and the drivers ed program here consists of thirty hours in a classroom learning about safe driving, six hours with an instructor doing different things like highway driving or parking, and then sixty hours total behind the wheel before you can go do your drivers test. Although teens hate how tedious the program is, it really helps keep driving related deaths and injuries, especially among teens, very low in Maryland. Having an extensive drivers ed program really helps teens understand the importance of safe driving and significantly lowers driving related deaths.

Being the youngest in all my friends groups, I was the last to get my license so I got to ride around with my friends who were newly licensed. Scary, I know. Thankfully I’ve never been in an accident, nor has anybody that I know, but almost everyone I know has driven irresponsibly at one point or another. Obviously there is the main thing, using their phone, but also things like eating or trying to find something in their bag while driving. You see it almost everywhere, “don’t text and drive”, it’s ingrained into everyone’s mind, but what about the other stuff. I remember it being touched on in drivers ed, but nowhere near as much as using your phone. Parents will strictly enforce no phones, but not no eating, or no changing the radio, because they know they can’t say to not doing something and then turn around and do that same thing. I think that parents, or any experienced driver should try and set better examples on how to be a safe driver by limiting as many of these “lesser” distractions as possible. I believe that this will better teach kids how to be a safe driver and in turn reduce the number of driving related deaths. Being that I am an older sister, I will try to do this as well to set a good example for my younger siblings so that by the time they get their license they will be very safe drivers.

It will be very difficult to make the roads entirely safe, but I think that many states are on the right path to doing this. States need to continue to update and improve their drivers ed programs, because they are very beneficial to new drivers, but parents and guardians also need to do the work. Being a good model driver day in and day out will make a huge difference in how teens learn and continue to drive. Everyone plays a big part in making the roads safer for everyone, so do your part.