The 3,000 Pound Weapon

Driving in the United States is a privilege and not a Constitutional right. A person must exemplify knowledge of the rules of the road and demonstrate certain skills to obtain a driver’s license. For many teens and young adults, driving represents freedom. For others it means the chance to explore new areas or create new beginnings. With this freedom comes great responsibility.  

Driver’s education is an important step in obtaining a driver’s license. In Wisconsin, anyone under 18 must take this course, pass a written test, and pass a driving test to gain this privilege. The class teaches teenagers the important rules of the road including following speed limit signs, properly stopping while at red lights, using blinkers when turning, and how to park your vehicle. All these lead to attentive driving, which reduces the number of accidents and deaths on the road. When someone reaches the age of 18, that person does not need to attend driver’s education to obtain their license. They just need to take a written test and complete the driving test portion at their local DMV. I feel that anyone wanting to drive a 3,000-pound weapon down the road or on the highway should have to take this necessary course.  My reason for saying this is that driver’s education teaches the rules of the road and gives some behind the wheel practice with a trained professional. 

There are other ways to reduce deaths on the road too. Always wear a seatbelt and insist that everyone in the vehicle does too. This habit should be as automatic as wearing underwear. Anyone 21 or older can do their part by not getting behind the wheel if impaired by alcohol or drugs. Using a designated driver or Uber type service will make sure everyone gets home safely. Distracted driving should be avoided at all costs. Text messaging, eating while driving, and anything else that requires your attention elsewhere is a hazard to yourself and drivers around you. If you cannot give one hundred percent of your attention to the road, you should not be driving. Finally, always go the speed limit and do not follow too closely to other vehicles.  Tailgating is not just annoying; it is also dangerous. When the car in front of you stops unexpectedly, you want to have enough room to stop too with creating a crash scene.

In addition to making everyone take a driver’s education course, I think that everyone would benefit from additional testing to keep their driver’s license.  This could include a written test every 5-10 years and an additional driver’s test when a person reaches the age of 65.  It is important to make sure people stay on top of the rules of the road to keep everyone safe.  This way too, an older adult would have the DMV let them know their license is no longer valid instead of one of their children having to take it away.

I have never experienced a car accident, but I have witnessed careless driving around my high school and town. I have even witnessed my own parents not giving driving one hundred percent of their attention from time to time. Even though my mom always states that my sibling and I are her greatest cargo, her life gets hectic and her mind wanders. My high school is on the main road in a small town.  There is a student parking lot that has one way in and one way out. At the end of the school day everyone wants to flee as quickly as they can. This causes some students to pull out of the parking lot without caution and sometimes there are accidents that could be prevented.

To protect myself and anyone around me, I always make sure to do a few things while driving. The first is to always wear my seatbelt. I like my life too much to worry about what others think when I buckle up. The process is automatic and my first step after getting into the car. I also turn off my cell phone so that I am not tempted to text and drive.  No text is worth my life or someone else’s!  I also use caution while driving through parking lots and park with care. This includes looking for pedestrians, swinging car doors, and any runaway carts.  Finally, speed limits are not suggestions. The speed in a particular area is carefully planned by a road engineer and one should always obey the law. A residential neighborhood has cars backing out of driveways and kids running between houses, warranting a low-speed limit.  Highways are open roads and therefore one can drive a little faster.