The Importance of Driver’s Safety and Education

The Importance of Driver’s Safety and Education

By Mohith Jalagam

Many of us after turning 16 beg our parents to get a learner’s license and ascend towards the license, hoping to drive by ourselves to various places. The eagerness is understandable because we used to watch our parents drive vehicles and make it look rather easy at times. However, there is more to driving than what meets the eye. Once we start driving, we are responsible for everything around us. Hurling a two-ton vehicle at 45 mph could be dangerous. We should all know the consequences and drive responsibly, but we need to know just how to do so.

This is where drivers ed comes in by teaching us how to maneuver vehicles safely in various conditions, including dangerous driving conditions such as roads being covered with ice. Also, getting a different point of view also lets us learn a lot more about the outside world and consider ways that can prevent us from being involved in potentially deadly accidents. Not only that, we get to learn about different types of drivers and learn how to react when they do encounter such individuals, which could include their friends.

Speaking about friends and their driving habits, one of my friends has a habit to accelerate hard at times, but he also has a bad habit of using his phone while driving. While it does look like he has good control over his car, it is still potentially dangerous. He isn’t the only one because many teenagers love to speed. In fact, according to NHTSA’s findings in 2015, 32 percent of 15- to 20-year-old and 21- to 24-year-old male drivers involved in fatal crashes were speeding, the highest among the age groups presented. Although it may be impossible to reduce the number of teenagers or anyone from driving fast, drivers ed has the ability to lower that number, which, in turn, lowers the number of potentially fatal accidents.

The drivers ed system is useful in teaching valuable lessons, but we also have to do our part by staying focused on the road ahead of us. We have to control the urge to pick up our phones when we receive notifications from various apps. We must make sure our cars are in good condition to drive, or it could be hazardous for people around us. When we see others drive irresponsibly, it’s our responsibility to inform them about it. Their driving could affect not only your life, but the lives of others around you. Obeying the traffic signs and laws will help us get to our destinations in a safe manner. Afterall, our lives aren’t worth losing over to unreasonable decisions made behind the wheel.