Become MVPs of the Future

The United States loses approximately 90 people to vehicle accidents daily. Throughout a year that pans out to be over 37,000 people killed. How do we stop this? The answer’s simple, driver education. According to the Washington State Legislature, only 31 states require driver education for a teen to receive their license. Of those 31, only 12 officially offer online driver education. In the 1970s, 95 percent of eligible students around the country had access to driver education (Mohn, The New York Times, 2005). It was available at no cost in public schools, whereas today in most states, we see driver education offered in private companies that you must pay, due to the decrease in funding of public financing. Funding should have increased so the country could boost that percentage to 100.

We see the effect lack of training has done. Drivers that know the importance of turning signals verses those that don’t. Drivers who know how to correctly treat a stop sign verses that are ignorant. Driver education properly prepares us to take on the dangerous road. Without it we put ourselves at a greater risk of losing our loved ones, even ourselves, whether we’re inside or outside the vehicle.

To reduce the number of deaths due to car accidents we must increase the public funding, so driver education can become available in schools again. Not only that, but have it include sitting behind a wheel with your instructor after, and only after, you have passed the Traffic Safety and Trends Exam. Make it available in every state for free, so no matter how much money you or your parents have, you can be prepared and safe. Also, get rid of leniency during the driving exam or require that the test be taken at the DVM. Having a sister who could barely drive when she took her driving test at a third-party driving school, and still receiving her license, I see how leniency is crippling our driving teens. Leniency has no place in a test that determines the outcome of you being able to put your or someone else’s life at risk. I fear for my sister’s safety every day. I have been in the car with her as she drove recklessly and even experienced an accident with her. No one was hurt but that is not always how it goes.

I completed driver’s education and passed the Traffic Safety and Trends Exam. Not only that, but I will take it a step further and go to driving school so I can learn how to drive from a certified professional, to be the best and safest driver I can be.

Understanding the importance of driver education means we must look at the effect that lack of this education has caused. Once we except this, admit that we have ample room to grow, and commit ourselves to doing such, we can tackle the problem like Ray Lewis in the Super Bowl, and just like him become MVPs of the future.