Behind the Wheel

Throughout high school, the most exciting part of sophomore year is being able to take drivers ed. The thought that maybe by the time you’re a junior or a senior you can get your own car, drive wherever and whenever you want, go out with your friends and so on, but the reality is that there is a higher importance than just going out with your friends late at night with your new car. Drivers ed is one of the most crucial parts of keeping yourself and others around you safe from accidents. If these skills were never learned, imagine the amounts of accidents we would have on a daily basis, probably way more than what it currently is. It is very important that not only students learn about the responsibility it is to drive but also parents get involved with how their children are handling being behind the wheel, it could potentially save someone’s life. Some may think that it is no big deal and that it won’t ever happen to them but the scary part is that it does happen and very frequently, studies have shown that there are about 6 million car accidents every year and out of all those, 90 people get killed everyday! People don’t usually think about the type of responsibility it is to drive, a personal story is that when I was about 13 years of age, my grandmother was driving on a 25 mph zone and this small truck crashed the driver side of your car, it wasn’t a major accident but it could have been way worse. The other driver was not paying attention to where he was turning, was going a little more than the speed limit and hit us, luckily no one got injured. Maybe my grandmother should have also moved to the side but it does not justify the other driver for not paying attention and speeding. Imagine if there was a child crossing the street at that time and got hit instead? That would have been even worse. The advantage students have of learning how to drive properly at a young age is to prevent these types of accidents, the more students learn about the consequences of bad driving and being good drivers is a great way to have a safer world. Students should also take into consideration and not take this as a joke. Schools should also always teach their students about driving safely at all costs, to really get them to think that this is very serious. Students should also help one another learn properly and not encourage each other to do bad things, if they can not handle this responsibility, they should not be allowed to be behind the wheel until they have a complete understanding of the reality of driving. Those who do not obey this should get some time of penalty or something related. Thanks to drivers’ education in high schools, it can make a bigger difference on the road for everyone.