Driver Education Initiative 2020: In the Driver’s Seat Scholarship

Justin Morgan

Driver Education Initiative 2020 Scholarship

28 September 2020

The importance of driving education is to teach individuals strategies on how to be both offensive and defensive when driving to minimize the number of deaths due to driving. We are taught these strategies so that we keep ourselves and other people safe. Unfortunately not everyone utilizes these strategies which results in an increase of car accidents. Being experienced in driving is not an excuse to disregard what was taught in driving education; these lessons should be used all the time when driving.

Once people pass the driving test and get their learning permit to drive, some people forget the basic building blocks that got them their driving license in the first place. Perhaps encouraging others to refer back to the DMV handbook and applying the lessons may help reduce deaths by driving. To endorse other drivers to take time and relearn how to drive safe would at a large scale reduce driving deaths. Drivers that would undergo the process of relearning how to drive safely should also be encouraged to share what they learn with other drivers so that they may inspire others to learn how to drive safely. A personal example of helping others to become better drivers was getting my mother to focus on the road and not be distracted visually and manually. When driving with me in the passenger’s seat of her car she would feel inclined to text with one hand and drive with the other whenever someone messages her on her phone; through constant reminders that she should be focusing on the road she stopped this habit. My mother would also become manually distracted by eating food while driving; I encouraged her to park somewhere and eat or wait until we get to our destination. Although I may be considered a good driver there is still much to improve on and in doing so, tips and tricks learned through experience can be shared and spread with others. An example of this is improving my driving skills when it comes to navigating through cars in a freeway, sharing my strategies to stay safe during this situation can keep individuals safe when dealing with a similar circumstance.

Given these points, driving education is important due to teaching individuals how to drive offensively and defensively to minimize deaths by driving. Unfortunately, not everyone applies what they learned to practice therefore encouraging them to relearn and inspire others how to drive safely may minimize driving incidents. This is something that can be achieved due to my own personal experience of helping my mother correct her visual and manual distraction driving habits. In improving my own driving skills I can help others as well, lessons learned through experience can be shared and developed by others.