The Importance of Driver Education

This country needs a massive amount of help with driver education and safety. Teens from the ages of 16-18 are the most at risk with driving. They must be more experienced, especially if they have only done the bare minimum for driving hours. The importance of driver education for new drivers is to help prepare them for experiences they may see while driving. Sure, the teen thinks they know everything (which they don’t), especially when it comes to driving, but they learn best with time and experience. Driver education is a great thing for new drivers. It teaches them valuable skills, like how to change a tire or if you get pulled over by law enforcement. Many young drivers don’t know what to do in these situations and will go online to look it up, but what would happen if they were in an area with no service? That’s why it is essential to remember and know this important life skills driver education can teaches you.

Millions of inexperienced drivers learn sign meanings, road meanings, and what to do in a crash situation. If teens didn’t know the lessons taught in driver education, would they know what to do in an accident? 9/10 times they would need to figure out what to do because they needed to be more experienced and would not know what type of insurance they use or what kind of registration they have. If you never did an education course for driving, would you know what to do? Many would say no to that question, but thankfully Virginia law requires a Driver education class, online or in person. What steps can be taken to reduce the number of deaths while driving, you ask? Well, let me inform you. First, parents should be there helping the teen when they first receive their permit so they can get constructive criticism. How would the teen know if they did something wrong if the parent did not say anything? The more adjustments you give the teen, the better they will be at driving. Based on the teen’s maturity when receiving their license, it should be up to the parents on what type of car they want for their child if the parent decides to pay for the vehicle. Also, parents must ensure their child is not participating in any form of underage drinking, and God forbid their underage child receives a DUI.

Virginia has a ZERO tolerance law for underage drinking, and nobody wants to deal with a DUI ticket, so make sure to stay clear of that. I’ve also often seen parents buy irresponsible boys’ sports cars like a Mustang or a Nissan Z. That is not the brightest idea since the young driver is new to driving, needs a safe car, and has a good amount of time driving before they get some fast sports car. The best thing I can say to reduce young teen deaths and cause deaths is to TURN OFF THE CELLPHONES! Teens especially looking at their cellphones is one of the most common ways they get into an accident that could’ve been prevented. So many teens will be looking down at their phones and then accidentally rear-end the car in front of them, and they will have to deal with the hassle of everything. Heed my warning, and PLEASE, keep your phone out of your hands and focus on the road ahead of you.

I thankfully have not been in a car accident. However, I have been in a fender-bender but apart from that, no accidents. I do have one friend who recently got into a bad accident. A dump truck was on her left side, and out of nowhere, it scraped her car, dented her door, took off her mirror, and damaged the headlight on the left side of the vehicle. Thankfully they were alright, and there were no injuries. The one thing is that they could’ve swerved out of the way, but they didn’t expect it, which is understandable. It just shows that anything on the road can happen when you least expect it, which is why new drivers need driving education and behind-the-wheel training, but you can only prepare so much for accidents because they happen. The critical thing to do is ensure you follow the rules of the road, so the accident is not as bad. Remember a car can be a weapon, you take a chance every time you go behind the wheel. The steps I can take to become a better driver should be not to follow so closely. My mom always says I follow too close to cars, and I must adjust that for when I start driving by myself. But number one is to keep my eyes on the road, focus on driving, and ignore all other distractions so I don’t cause an accident.

Overall driver education is one of the most important things a teen can have. Like I said it teaches them a whole range of skills an how to handle a situation if one arises. Always be prepared because you never know what could happen on the road, an always drive responsibly. Put the phones down, turn down the radio, and please be safe.