Educate Young and Old Generations

Kazi Hossain

DmvEdu.org

2 October 2021

Educate Young and Old Generations

Think about driving, what comes to mind? Per usual, driving is perceived to be transportation for a person or multiple people from one place to another, that was the basic reasoning toward the invention of an automobile in the first place. In 2020, according to Hedges & Company, the US had approximately 231,652,000 registered drivers and the number will only keep growing according to the increase every year and future projections. Thus knowing, unfortunately the amount of car crashes will continue to increase as well due to the growing population in drivers. In America, a course called Drivers Education has been available and popularly widespread for high schoolers during their sophomore year, which helps increase awareness and creates safer drivers in the process. As Americans and citizens of humanity, we must educate every human being about safety while driving at all costs.

Distracted driving has been a tremendous issue as of late. Texting while driving has become more popular as technology has progressed, which have led to very serious and fatal accidents. According to the NHSTA, “nine people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured daily in incidents reported as distraction-related crashes in the United States.” The amount of people that get injured from distracted drivers is absurd. Drinking and driving in young adults and adults has also been a popular trend as well. Drinking and driving is where the driver has a Blood Alcohol Concentration or BAC of 0.08 or higher. When an individuals BAC is that high, the driver is considered “legally impaired” to the level of how physically impaired individuals are. According to Lena Borelli, more than 10,000 lives are lost each year due to drinking and driving. Also stated, “Drunk driving is responsible for about 1/3 of traffic fatalities” and “minimum-drinking-age laws have saved over 30,000 lives.” The number of innocents’ lives were lost from a singular person driving when drunk is unbelievable. Laws were put in place to save lives, which had saved many but the initiative needs to spread to everyone.

Drivers Education is a course for high school student, usually sophomores, who are new to driving. The course is meant to inform kids on situational driving, how the car works, etc. Although the course does not physically teach someone how to drive, it immensely educates an individual vitally. Knowing that, the importance of educating drivers saves many lives in huge quantities. Steps have been taken in the past by giving a fine to whoever gets caught texting while driving. Yet that still does not do much, other initiatives must be taken. It comes down to drivers license suspensions, revoked licenses, jail time, etc. Harsher punishments are the only way to save lives while driving. I have never been in nor witnessed a car accident in my life. I have in fact seen my family members driving irresponsibly. My uncle, works a job as a delivery man. He constantly looks at his phone while he drives. He knows it is dangerous but his excuse is “I have a family to feed.” Though that being true, he still needs to watch out on the road. I helped him come with a resolve, I went on his delivery rides and told him where to go and the direction of what the customer had texted instead of him responding. This method proved to be effective. To this day, he takes his wife or either one of his kids, who are now grown up, to help him. From then on, I always observed others while they drive for my own and everyone else’s wellbeing. Whenever I drive, whether it be by myself or with others, I always think about good decisions to make to avoid any accidents. There are many more steps that should be taken to become a safer driver, but as of now, these are the only resolves I could think of.

Car accidents and fatal car crashes have spiked up throughout the years. For society as a whole, we should educate all drivers, including future drivers, about safety and responsibilities about driving. Taking into consideration, stricter laws should be enforced to ensure a safer driving environment throughout the United States. The education system has improved safety by teaching future drivers in school. These measures were taken for a reason and to improve traffic and how people drive. Yet, better expectations are to come and educating drivers should always be a priority.

Works Cited

Borrelli, Lena. “2021 Drunk Driving Statistics.” Bankrate, Bankrate, 26 July 2021, https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/drunk-driving/. 

FCC. “The Dangers of Distracted Driving.” Federal Communications Commission, 4 May 2021, https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/dangers-texting-while-driving. 

Hedges & Company. “Number of Licensed Drivers in US in 2021, How Many Americans Drive.” Hedges & Company, 23 June 2021, https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2018/10/number-of-licensed-drivers-usa/.