Dealing With Unpredictability

The importance of driver education isn’t just in knowing some of the dangers of drinking and driving, speeding, or texting and driving, although those are incredibly important. Driver education is important because death can happen even if the driver is driving responsibly. While teaching the importance of driving sober is crucial and should be taken seriously, drivers must also learn the importance of knowing how to drive safely when other drivers are irresponsible. 

Reducing the number of deaths can be achieved by teaching how to deal with irresponsible and perhaps uneducated drivers on the road. Most drivers know the grave importance of staying sober while driving and not speeding, however most new drivers don’t know how to handle an unpredictable situation. 

I remember a situation where I had feared for my life because of an unpredictable driver. While I keep from speeding, stay sober, and put my phone away while driving, I am still not the most experienced or calm driver. I know this because of this situation. I was driving down a semi-popular road at night. I was driving on the right side of the road and talking to my mother in the passenger seat. There were cars driving on the other side. We were calm until suddenly, we saw headlights coming right for us. I waited a second to do anything because I was unsure of what was going on and what to do. A car was driving straight for us! With only seconds to spare, I pulled to the side of the road, where, luckily, there was room for both cars to go through. My mother and I both took deep breaths and said prayers. While it was unlikely we would’ve died from the crash, we still feared for our lives in that moment. I had never been taught how to handle a situation like that in my driving courses and only reacted on pure instinct. I wonder what would’ve happened if there was no room on the road and I hadn’t reacted so fast. 

I believe teaching how to handle events like these in driving courses would prevent more driving deaths or at least less accidents. I can take better steps such as reducing my speed, paying more attention to the road, and knowing what to do if my car breaks down to insure my safety while driving.