Importance of Driver’s Education- From the Perspective of an EMT

To many, driving is a mundane daily task that has become a part of our daily routine. Commuting to work can be just as mindless as brushing your teeth. However, complacency while driving can have deadly implications. Busy roads, phones as a distraction, and even just the seemingly harmless wandering mind can all have fatal consequences while driving. According to the U.S Department of Transportation, in 2021 26,325 people died in motor vehicle accidents. What is even more concerning is that this fatality rate is gradually increasing each year. These statistics provide insight into what is a rapidly growing epidemic: death as a result of driving.

As an emergency medical technician, I drive an ambulance 40 hours a week, every week. I frequently drive to calls and to the hospital emergent. Driving emergent requires me to employ my lights and sirens and drive over the speed limit through busy traffic. Because of the obvious safety risks of driving like, this we are required to complete additional driving classes. These classes include general information on vehicle safety operations and defensive driving. It also includes an obstacle course that is completed at various rates of speed. This additional training has kept me safe in numerous instances while driving emergent. I can recall a day when I was driving rapidly down a busy street and a car pulled directly in front of my ambulance. My first instinct was to slam on my brakes and swerve. Luckily, my additional training kicked in and I knew slamming on brakes while turning the vehicle can result in loss of control of the vehicle and in worse cases can cause the ambulance to roll. Knowing this, I performed a serpentine maneuver and avoided the car. My additional training allowed me to act quickly and safely in a volatile situation and potentially saved my life, my partner’s life, and protected the other drivers on the road. Supplemental driver education courses can provide the average driver with skills to respond to dangerous situations like this. There are many courses that are designed to improve the proficiency of civilian drivers by encouraging defensive driving and teaching proper techniques to gain control of a vehicle in high-speed situations. If more people took these courses, many accidents could be avoided.

Not only has my job given me the opportunity to educate myself on safe driving, but it has also provided me with a unique understanding of the fatal repercussions of motor vehicle accidents. As an EMT I have run numerous calls for people involved in accidents. Some of the accidents are relatively benign. Unfortunately, some of the accidents have resulted in the most gruesome deaths I have ever seen. Just recently I ran on a call where two drivers were out for a joy ride and lost control of their vehicle. The car spun out of control and collided head-on with a tree at approximately eighty miles per hour. The passenger was unrestrained and was ejected through the windshield and landed around 20 yards away from the car. The passenger later succumbed to her injuries at the hospital. The driver was pinned inside the vehicle when the engine caught fire. The entire vehicle was soon engulfed in flames. The driver, sadly, died inside the burning vehicle. This event is horribly tragic and completely avoidable. Had the passenger been wearing her seatbelt she likely would have survived the crash. Had the driver been educated on the importance of safe, defensive driving, they may not have been driving dangerously and lost control of the vehicle.

These precautionary tales can be daunting and could ward some people off from driving ever again. However, that is not the point of me sharing these stories. I instead wish to highlight that many accidents can be avoided by compliance with safety procedures. The simplest and most effective of which is always wearing a seatbelt. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, of the over twenty-six thousand vehicle occupant deaths, around fifty percent were not wearing a seatbelt. Driving education and continued vigilance while driving can have life-saving results. Public service announcements reminding people to not drive distracted (texting, eating, etc.) is any easy and necessary way to prevent car accidents. Continued education courses on defensive driving and proper vehicle operation techniques can help mitigate car accidents if not prevent them. If drivers’ education courses were required with the renewal of licensure (every five years) more people would have the training and skillset that is required for driving. Preparedness, education, and vigilance are the only viable courses of action to dismantle the growing number of car accident fatalities.