More to Driving Than Turning a Key

Driving is not difficult; we have all been watching our parents, grandparents, family friends, aunts, uncles, and other adults drive since we were old enough to know what was happening. Just push the right pedal to make it go, the middle one to make it stop, and use the big wheel to make turns. Some of us have experience driving golf carts or ATVs around the pasture, and maybe we even got to sit in our parents’ laps and drive the truck. How hard can it be? I already know what to do from observing all these years, and now I am big enough to reach all the pedals myself and old enough to get my license. This thought is how many young drivers rationalize their driving ability with other drivers on public roads. Driving is not just the mechanics of making a vehicle move forward or backward; it also requires processing information quickly, applying multiple rules simultaneously, and being aware of yourself and conscious of others around you. Knowing how to operate a car is the easy part; everything else involved with driving is more complicated. Driver education is key to helping make your vehicle’s operation safer on the roads.

When I was younger, my family and I were involved in a rollover wreck in the country. A 15-year-old with only a permit and no adult in the truck was speeding and ran a stop sign right in front of us. My dad did not even have time to apply the brakes. We hit the truck going 60mph in the rear wheels and flipped over the bed of his truck, landing on the other side of the road facing the opposite direction. Our car was deemed to be totaled. I was still young enough that my parents had me in a child’s car seat with shoulder harness straps. We were all taken to the hospital, and all 3 of us came home the same day. We were sore but only had extensive bruising from the seatbelts and a few cuts from the glass. Seatbelts saved our lives. I was young when this happened, but it significantly impacted me. To this day, I am never in a moving vehicle without my seatbelt buckled. My impression of the boy driving remains in my mind that he was irresponsible and the fact that his parents did not care enough to be in the car with him. That thought has stayed in the back of my mind, and I don’t want to be that kind of driver now. Experiencing a traumatic accident like this impacts the type of driver you will be.

When studying, in the book or online, Driver education is memorizing what signs mean, speed limits, driver spacing, rules, yellow versus white lines on the road, insurance cards, licenses, and much more. You have to learn the facts and pass the test to start driving. Anyone can do this depending on how much time and effort you want to put into learning. I feel this is an important step, but the real issue for your safety and the safety of others is the classroom that takes place in the automobile. To me, more hours should be spent on the different aspects of driving. Where I live, I do mostly country open road driving. It is not congested, mostly trucks, trailers, farm equipment, and semi-trucks. The most dangerous driving time is at night because we have no street lights. All you can see is what is in the headlights. I don’t worry so much about other vehicles as much as deer or pigs running in front of my truck which can be dangerous and cause extensive damage. So for me, I needed more concentrated practice in the city with more congestion, cars everywhere, people, traffic lights, multiple lanes going in different directions, and learning how to think faster and safer about the decisions I had to make. In contrast, a person who learned to drive in a city where everything is lit up would be completely disoriented by driving in the pitch-black darkness of the night out in the country. We can not just practice driving where we are comfortable. Driver education must introduce new drivers to many different driving situations and increase the number of hours behind the wheel practicing these different driving scenarios. Putting more hours into practicing driving, with supervision, where we are not comfortable, would help decrease accidents.

Parents and guardians must be proactive about their children’s driving practices and experiences. Many parents or guardians are extremely busy, and if their children can drive to school and take their siblings, parents are too ready to let them go. Don’t leave the evaluation of whether your child is prepared to drive strictly to others. Take the time to make sure your child is genuinely prepared to drive independently and not just good enough so they can help out. Some kids are ready to drive at 15; some are not ready till 17. Part of being prepared for a license is maturity level. Don’t rush. Get your license when you are ready, not just because you can.