Safe driving Essay

I believe that regardless of precautions taken teenagers & young adults will do stupid things, which is inevitable. But, with reasonable accommodations, we can allow for the rates to decrease exponentially. For example, requiring all drivers with smartphones to download an app that tracks driving & phone usage while behind the wheel. This potential app run by either governmental agencies or private companies would allow for the use of this app to allow for “prizes” such as lower insurance rates, discounts at nearby fast food establishments, shopping malls, etc. This potential route could greatly reduce the rates of phone usage while driving & I believe that there would undoubtedly be multiple companies that would be happy to get on board with providing discounts to anyone using this feature. There will of course be ways around this, but I believe it could be prevented fairly easily by requiring the phone to be connected to a Bluetooth car, aux cord, handsfree car play, or android car play to redeem any points. The issue with this would be older cars, in which case providing a partnership between the app & aftermarket touchscreen or BlueTooth car installation features would keep costs low or provided for those without substantial resources & allow for more to reap the benefits while substantially reducing rates of accidents due to smartphone use while driving. Another method that should be implemented regardless would be drivers ed provided by the state or federal government. I was lucky enough to only have to pay $30 for Joshua’s Law in the state of Georgia & had a stepdad who taught me to drive defensively and with caution, but for those without that privilege and without any required drivers ed classes it makes sense that Georgia is unofficially ranked as the 12th worst state for drivers. Providing and legally requiring comprehensive drivers’ education classes to all with learners permits would substantially reduce all forms of accidents, not just those related to phone use but also those related to recklessness, non-defensive driving, driving under the influence, & more. We need to overall take driving more seriously. It is seen as a right of passage to many teenagers as well as their parents, throughout the world, but other than when we get into accidents many people don’t realize how big of a responsibility it is handling & controlling a large motor vehicle. Rather than rushing to get our licenses, we need to dedicate time & energy to keeping others & ourselves safe from harm behind the wheel of a car. Maybe increasing the licensing age by half a year or reducing the learners’ permit age by half a year would allow for enough time to process the large influx of information provided by drivers education as well as allow for much more practice time behind the wheel which would inevitably decrease accidents as well. There are many ways to go about the decreasing of teen cellphone usage while driving & overall accidents in teen drivers, I have many ideas on how to do this but it would obviously take time to implement & all we can do until then is spread as much information on the dangers of doing these things as we possibly can.