Driver Education Influencing Safety

Car crashes are one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. today with about 12.9 deaths for every 100,000 people. There are around 20,000 car accidents daily, with around 7.3 million accidents yearly. This is heavily due to a lack of driver education throughout all ages. Car crashes are a problem all around the world, and it needs to be stopped in order to save millions of lives.

Driver education could significantly reduce the number of deaths from driving. Driver education gives drivers many ways to be safer on the road. Driver education can teach people things like using their blinkers, how far of a following distance they should maintain, what each road sign means, and many more things. Without driver education, many people would be driving on the road with no idea of the traffic laws. Most accidents occur when people are speeding, running red lights, not coming to complete stops at stop signs, and merging or turning without a blinker. Most of these people did not have proper education on how to drive safely, or were not told how important it is to be a safe driver. This is why driver education is crucial to saving lives on the roads. Driving a car is a scary and dangerous thing and it is not fair to anyone to not be given proper driver education.

Just in one day around 20,000 people get into car crashes and no one does anything about it. The biggest way to prevent car crashes would be to increase driver education, but how do we do that? Yes, we can start by increasing the amount of driver education that teenagers are required to take in school, but what about adults that have already gone through school? In the past, driver education has been given in school, but not the right way. One class, lasting only an hour and a half for half a year, is not enough to be given the best driver education possible. Therefore, adults today were never given good driver education but are no longer in school to relearn it. The first step that needs to be taken to increase the amount of driver education that people get obviously starts with schools. Schools need to be giving driver education classes every year starting in high school, where driver education is stressed strongly. Students need to realize how important being safe on the road is, and they need to learn how to be safe on the road. Students also need to have more time behind the wheel with an instructor. Driving school hours need to increase that way teachers have more time in the car with teenagers. Next, classes on driver education for adults to take need to be created. This should be a mandatory class that adults have to complete and pass in order to maintain their licenses. These tests should be mandatory around every five years after the day they got their license. Traffic laws change often and many people have no way of knowing these changes. These classes would make sure that the newest traffic laws are being followed, and it would give adults a chance to refresh their memory of safety while on the road. These laws also need to be broadcasted more often. The news should be showing all of the new traffic laws regularly, and there should be signs on the road telling drivers about the new laws they have to follow. Stricter penalties also need to be enforced for drivers making dangerous decisions and breaking road laws.

Personally, I have had an experience of being in a car accident myself. In February of 2023, I was in the school parking lot trying to get out of my parking space. I looked around me, and there was a car very far back away from my parking spot, clearly stopped and not planning on moving any time soon. I did not realize this at the time, but that person was not aware of their surroundings in any way and was not paying any attention to the road. I saw that he was sitting still and extremely far away from my spot, so I started backing out slowly when all of a sudden I felt something hit me. I immediately pulled forward in order to figure out what had happened. He was blaming me for the accident at first, attempting to say that it was my fault. However, once the school cop came over to try and help, he admitted that he was on the phone with his boyfriend when it happened. This clearly showed that he was paying no attention to driving, and only focusing on his phone. There were a few things both of us could have done to prevent this accident from happening. For starters, he should have never been on his phone while driving a car. I should have assumed that even though he wasn’t moving at the time, he could have hit the gas at any point. We should not have pulled back into parking spots, we should have stayed exactly where we were in order for the authorities to really be able to tell what happened and who was at fault. All of these things could have been prevented if we had proper driving education and knew how to handle a situation like this.

Everyone has different things that they need to change while driving, and I have quite a few. Through my experiences as a driver, I have realized that sometimes I cut my turns too close and I need to be more patient while trying to get out of my school’s parking lot. Now, I am much more careful and aware while I am leaving the parking lot. I also make sure to take my turns a little wider. I also need to make sure that I am using my turn signals at all times, because sometimes I see myself forgetting to use them. I also need to make sure to maintain a good following distance because I often get told by people riding with me that I am following too close. I have never been someone that uses my phone while driving, so I will continue to never use it. Lastly, I need to make sure that I am following the speed limits and not going over, even if it’s just a little bit. The speed limits are there because that is the safe speed to be going on a particular road, and everyone needs to start following the speed limits.

In an ideal world, cars would have extremely enhanced safety features preventing accidents from happening. Until that time, we need to focus on driver education and safety rules on the road. Therefore, the government and authorities need to make these changes to make the world a safer place. It takes more than just the government; however, we as individuals need to be making smarter decisions while driving a vehicle in order to prevent accidents from happening.