No One is Safe

Driving, that freeing privilege that every teenager can’t wait to obtain. Most count down the days, the weeks, sometimes even the years until they get to walk into a dimly lit building to stand in front of a greenscreen and take a picture. All that in order to be able to carry around a legal piece of plastic stating that you are eligible to drive in the United States. See, everyone just wants to skip ahead to the day that they get to smile for the camera, but they dread going to a required class every day for two weeks when they actually have to learn how to drive. Most confident teenagers think they already know how to drive and don’t need to learn, but this mindset is what causes accidents.

The importance of driver’s education is taken for granted and ignored by most teenagers in society today. Their cocky, overly confident attitudes are the reason there are so many reported accidents each year. Driver’s education is in place as a requirement to limit the number of teenagers that turn into a statistic with one life-threatening incident. A recent study done relating to drivers education and the number of deaths states that “Young drivers who have not completed driver’s education are 75% more likely to get a traffic ticket. They are also 24% more likely to be involved in a fatal or injury accident, and 16% more likely to get in an accident themselves.” (NewsRoom 2015). This statement alone is scary to really analyze. No one is less susceptible to being involved in a fatal accident than the next person on the road.

There are many steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths. One of those is having more strict guidelines and curriculums for driver’s education. This will hopefully lead to more students paying attention in class and retaining the information better. Another solution would be more hours required to pass the first session of drivers education. Increasing the night hours and the daylight driving hours would give students more experience on the road and the best way to learn is by doing.

An example that I can provide of how reckless driving has affected my life was when I was in sixth grade and I was given news on how my best friend was killed in a car accident on her way to school with her siblings. Erika, the youngest, was in fifth grade, her older brother Peter was in tenth grade, and her oldest sister Emily, the driver, survived and is a junior in college now. The news of Erika and Peter’s deaths shocked me and came extremely suddenly. No one was expecting it, as it stands for any car accident. Their deaths affected our entire community as they and their family were such a big part of it and everything that goes on in it. The community was able to come together and help the family by doing numerous fundraisers, support groups were put in place for students, and many other things were incorporated and put together to help everyone grieve for the two beloved children. This situation made me, as a sixth grader, afraid to grow up and I even developed a fear of driving, but now that I have been driving for a few years, I am that much more conscious and aware of myself and others when I drive.

Each time I get in my car I commit to looking out for myself, those in my vehicle, and those around me on the road. I do not want anyone on the road to turn into a statistic nor do I want to become one myself, so, I practice safe driving habits and strive to be the best example of a good driver to my family and friends each time I am on the road. Some of the ways that I can demonstrate these habits would be by not texting and driving, always wearing my seatbelt, not eating and driving, not driving distracted, and adhering to traffic laws everywhere. I hope that everyone who is new to driving or has been driving for many years can take into consideration the fact that no one is safer than the next person. I am just as susceptible to being involved in an accident as the next person, thus the reason I should always ensure that I am practicing safe driving habits and watching out for myself and others on the road at all times.