Leading by Example

In almost any circumstance, education promotes safety. If someone educates a person or group on a subject, then they are much more likely to treat it with care and caution. Driving provides a prime example of this. If students are given the space to learn the dangers of driving, along with the freedom it gives, it much easier to apply that in their own lives. Speaking from experience, I learned most about driving safely while actually driving. It was difficult for me to quantify the statistics and information that were thrown at me until I actually sat down behind the wheel and started driving. Education about driving helped me learn a greater respect and want to take more responsibility while driving. I believe that if students are provided with the space to learn this, the number of deaths as a result of driving will lessen dramatically.

I grew up in Iraq, where drivers ed is almost nonexistent. The driving there is very unsafe, and we regularly witnessed accidents happen. When we moved back to America last year, it was remarkable to see the difference that is made by being educated on safety and rules. However, there are still ways that the system can be made more effective.

One way I think this can be brought about is making drivers ed more meaningful. For me, it was overwhelming and boring when facts were just thrown at me. I found it difficult to engage with the information when I had no practical way to apply it. High school students—and probably almost everyone—learn better if they have something tangible to connect with the facts they are learning. Students will also be more willing to learn if the subject takes on real meaning. For me, I would have appreciated having more interaction with the things that I was learning. Obviously, I practiced actual driving, but I think it could have been more influential to my learning if I had been able to experience some of the things we talked about.

I understand some of this is not practical. For example, you cannot put students in actual danger, so they cannot actually experience being in an accident. But virtual reality is becoming more common and easily accessible. This is a tool that could be used to simulate car accidents that makes it feel more real to students as they learn about the risks that come with the benefits of driving. It can be expensive to bring things into a program that make it more interactive. It adds details and costs and potential risks. However, I believe this is a risk worth taking. In the long-run, if students learn and retain the information, there will be many less accidents and deaths as a result of driving.

Another way to reduce deaths as a result of driving would be to better enforce the laws that promote attentive driving, such as not allowing texting or speeding. This is a law that is frequently overlooked by many drivers. It becomes easy to think that it is alright to text for just a minute if you are moving in a straight line or moving slowly. Speeding is a problem in every area that I have driven in. Everyone is in a hurry to reach their next event, so everyone drives just a little faster. This gradually becomes a habit and more of a problem. However, in both of these situations it is impossible to pay full attention to your own driving and the vehicles around you. If these laws are enforced in a more holistic way, it will help reduce the number of deaths due to driving.

Recently, my brother got in a fender-bender. No one was hurt, thankfully, but it cost my brother about $500 to repair the car. It helped him learn a valuable lesson of paying complete attention while driving. He was moving toward a stoplight, and the car in front of him ran into the car in front of it. My brother had not been paying close enough attention to the driver in front of him, and so he did not brake quickly enough when the other vehicle came to an abrupt stop as it hit the car in front of him. It is a lesson that is easy to forget as people become more complacent with their inattentive driving. Small accidents are a blessing in some ways, as they serve as a reminder to be diligent while driving.

It is easy for me to talk like I am a perfect driver, but I can say right now that I am not. I have been guilty of speeding and being inattentive while driving. Thankfully, I have never been in an accident, and I hope that I never will be. In order to accomplish that I want to be a driver that will be diligent. I want to do a better job paying attention to my own driving as well as that of drivers around me. I believe it is important to lead by example. So, by becoming a more responsible driver, I will become a better example to the people I care about such as my brothers and my friends. In an indirect way, I am helping protect them as they drive. It is crucial that this is something that everyone acts on, and I want to be an example of that.