Drivers ed and Safe Driving

Drivers ed and Safe Driving

Jonathan Thompson

University of Kentucky

Driving is the most common means to travel in todays world. It is easily accessible and can take you far in a short time. While this is true it is also the most dangerous way to travel. Day by day thousands lose their lively hoods to traffic accidents. Medical expenses, totaled cars, permanent damage to their body’s, but sadly those are the lucky ones. More series accidents very easily take lives, thousands a day, over a million a year. Families broken, sparks gone, over something as simple as someone not looking properly before moving into the next lane, a turn of a wheel and lives lost. There is a clear serious problem, most young drivers don’t realize the seriousness of going behind a wheel, as my high school driving instructor had said “when you get behind the wheel of a car, your taking control of a loaded gun”. We give this control to children, as young as 16 year old children have the ability to drive with supervision. I and those along with me at that age had no clue what it meant, the danger and the responsibly that comes with driving. What is done to assure that young drivers are safe and the road and understand that responsibility and what can be done?

Drivers ed is the first step in learning to drive. Typically drivers ed starts with learning the basics of driving in a written portion for a set time. Often this portion of drivers ed takes 1-3 months. Then a short period of driving with an instructor. A written test is taken after this to quality for a permit to driving with an adult who already has a license. This will last from 6 months to a year, following this a final drivers test in a car is done giving a full license if passed. The drivers license is renewed every few years. This is the basic process to drivers ed with minor deviation between different states and countries, but is it enough. Is this all that can be done to make drivers safe? With thousands of deaths a day in mind I can say that our current system works.

More can be done on both a personal and systematic level to reduce the deaths from driving. Humans make mistakes, is in our nature, but we can do things to reduce the mistakes and drop the number of deaths. What steps can be done? A longer period of on the road driving before allowing a child to drive a car is one step that needs to be implemented. Young drivers need experience driving before being allowed to drive freely with an adult. Not everyone has the same situation at home, their may be parents or guardians who don’t want to or don’t know how to teach their child to drive once they have a permit. More time with an instructor in a car is necessary. I only had three days with my instructor. A driving portion for the permit test is also a good idea. It seems reasonable to ensure that someone about to get their permit knows how to drive properly before being let out to drive. I was surprised I didn’t have one, my only experience and test before driving was just three days of driving (not at all on a highway), and a basic written test. More needs to be done to ensure we are safely transitioning young drivers to the wheel overall. While this is true young drivers are not the only ones involved in traffic accidents. Experienced drivers all the same can just as easily end up at fault for a “accident”. What is done to ensure they can drive properly over the course of years? Nothing, while it is true that they may need to renew their license, they don’t actually have to test in any regard for the renewal. Though if a driver is found to receive tickets often for accidents, speeding, etc. they will receive points on their license that if built up can lead to the requirement for driving re-education. This is a great system to have but it is far from enough. Just because a driver doesn’t get caught doesn’t mean he is a safe driver. I propose a system of drivers license renewal that will test drivers in a in-car test every renewal, also increasing renewals to every 2 years as well. This action can counter unsafe drivers and allow re-education when needed. This can help with drivers who take long periods of not driving as well as elderly as they become older. While these are beneficial systematically, what can be done personally to better drive safe?

To better drive personally there are steps that can be taken to ensure you and those around you are safer. One important factor is not to be lazy driving, do not take being behind the wheel lightly. You may go years without anything close to an accident but all it takes is one to end your life. Even when you know no one is their look behind you before you switch lanes, look left and right before turning, even with the right away. Another thing to remember is just because you’re a safe driver, it doesn’t mean those around you are safe drivers. To often do drivers do the minimum in safety and believe just because they are safely driving it means they are completely safe form over drivers. I used to make this mistake myself, before being corrected by my father. I would turn with the right away without really looking toward the cars waiting for the light to turn. He told me always look in all directions before turning, you never know who might run a red light. Another thing to think of is to never drive distracted or impaired, both are crimes that kill. While my only experience in an accident has been being rear ended by a person texting and driving I am always going to look out for my driving as well as those around me.