Do Your Part

DO YOUR PART

By Maggie Kingman

Driver education is more important now than it ever has been considering the number of drivers on the road today and the growing number of fatalities that happen every year. Unfortunately, the majority of individuals who get driver education are only when either trying to obtain their license or to keep points from being taken off their license by completing a class. If we don’t start taking more initiative to promote driver education for every single person then the driver related deaths will continue to rise.

I feel and believe that the states and/or the federal government should mandate all individuals to attend and pass a test on driver education at a minimum of every five years. This would require every person to be held more accountable for their actions and practices. Sometimes all that is needed is a refresher course for people to gain more perspective or to remember how important it is. Far too often it takes an accident to give people a wake-up call and get them to be more cautious while driving. The longer a person drives, the more lax they become when they are behind the wheel. They either don’t pay attention or they start disobeying traffic laws which then puts them in danger of hurting themselves or others, even causing death.

When I was twelve years old, my father drove home drunk with me in the vehicle on a New Year’s Eve. Even though I was young, I knew he shouldn’t be driving and it was a scary situation for me. I was beyond distraught. It was only about a five minute drive, but I have always heard that most accidents occur closer to home. He was very irresponsible by getting behind the wheel and endangering not only himself and others, but myself as well. I called my mom and she could tell how upset I was and immediately came and picked me up. She was not happy about the situation at all.

I have to be conscientious of myself while driving and of all those around me. I can’t just believe that as long as I am following the traffic laws then I won’t get in an accident. Others drive irresponsibly and I have to observe their actions to keep myself and everyone in my vehicle and under my care safe as well. My mom always gives me advice about driving that I definitely try to enforce for myself. She always says to leave early when going somewhere, so you don’t have to rush which in turn can cause an accident. She also says that when on the highway and you miss your exit that it’s okay, you should just go and take the next one and turn around. This might be simple advice, but if everyone would do these two things then I feel that it would cut back on the number of accidents and fatalities. Everyone together needs to do their part.