If Your Children Drove Like You, Would You be Comfortable in the Car?

If Your Children Drove Like You, Would You be Comfortable in the Car?

Fortunately, I can say that I have never been in a major car accident. However, I think I have more experience with car accidents than most teenagers. At the age of 15, I began a job as a legal assistant at a local law firm that works with auto insurance companies. While there, I have read many police reports describing various car accidents. In all of these, there seems to be a general trend in which someone wasn’t driving responsibly, and generally wasn’t aware of their surroundings. Accidents don’t always have to involve crazy drivers, like the type that change five lanes of traffic at once, but rather, accidents occur when drivers start to be just a little more careless than they were before.

Another trend I have also noticed from my personal experience is that many teenagers, fresh out of Drivers Ed, or driving for the first time, tend to drive safely. Contrary to common opinion, I think that the majority of reckless drivers are actually adults, and unsafe teenagers are probably likely to have learned their bad habits from adults.

I believe Drivers Ed is crucial in helping youths to drive safely. However, while the youth are told over and over again that “it can wait,” I have noticed that, in my experience, adults tend to be the ones texting or calling while driving. My Drivers Ed teacher emphasized the importance of being aware of your surroundings, and driving carefully. Lessons like that have a remarkable impact on the safety of the future drivers who hear it. Most often, I think young driver’s learn bad driving habits from their parents; after all, most youth spend a majority of their time in the car with their parents before they are allowed behind the wheel. One of the great ironies and tragedies of driving is when a parent drives irresponsibly, but then tells their child that they should be more careful, even if the child is just imitating the actions of their parents. Drivers Ed is a proven program for reducing driver fatalities and helping youths drive safely, but there should be a way to reach out to the parents as well. Parents especially should take time to stress to their children that you cannot outgrow or overdo caution.

I have heard that some are recommending that adults be sent to Drivers Ed. However, I think that this would be a difficult thing to implement, and it may not be the right approach. Rather, I think that awareness should be spread to parents of the impact their driving habits can have on their children. An apt campaign title could be something along the lines of, “If your children drove like you, would you feel comfortable?” Parents need to be teaching their children by example, as well as by their words. As we make strides towards helping parents drive more responsibly, I believe that we can see a remarkable decrease in accidents across all age categories.