Just One Class Can Make A Difference

As a child there are multiple milestones that you will reach within life before reaching adulthood. One of those milestones is earning your drivers license and consequently being able to drive yourself around without mom and dad having to chauffeur you around anymore. We see driving as finally achieving more freedom, however one thing that is often overlooked is that even though we are discovering our newly found freedom, we also assume additional responsibilities with that privilege. This responsibility which we now have includes things such as taking care of a car, paying constant attention to all your surroundings, keeping others safe with you while driving, and keeping yourself safe as well. Driving can seem kind of scary at first when realizing you have all these new responsibilities to help prevent accidents and to help keep you and everyone around you safe, but thankfully there is a little thing called driver education to better help you be prepared and what to expect with this new freedom and new responsibilities.

The grim reality that death is a very real possibility when driving unfortunately will settle in with every new driver at some point. That is why driver education is very important. Driver education allows for students who are practicing driving to become more comfortable behind a wheel, better understand how to pay attention to what is around them and helps provide knowledge for what to do in different scenarios. The goal of taking these classes is to provide these new student drivers with the proper information so that when they finally are on the road by themselves, they will not panic or won’t be doing something they shouldn’t be doing which in return can lead to an accident. If younger drivers take these classes seriously and truly learn from them, it can help reduce the number of deaths that occur each year from driving.

Whenever we are performing tasks in life, we want to reduce the chance of any possible danger or risk that may come our way to help keep us safe. Unfortunately, death is one of these scary dangers and risks that can happen when driving. However, there are steps that we can all take to do our part to help reduce the number of deaths that happen because of driving. If you are an upcoming driver, you can reach out to your parents and ask them to sign you up for driver education classes. When taking those classes make sure you are getting everything out of it so that you can be better prepared for the road. Another step that can be taken for an upcoming driver is to have an adult ride passenger with you until you feel comfortable enough to go out on your own. That adult may be able to help you in different scenarios that you may not have known how to properly deal with 100%.

Upcoming drivers are not the only ones who can take steps to help reduce the number of deaths that occur from driving. Experienced drivers who have had their licenses for some time and parents can all help as well. Experienced drivers can perform simple steps such as turning off their phone or putting in a glove box when driving, be aware of all surroundings to help prevent an incident from happening, and even carpooling with others will help reduce the number of cars on the road. Parents also have some simple steps that they can perform as well. When I was learning to drive one thing that my father did for me was take me to an empty open parking lot and he helped me practice there. Finding an empty open space is a perfect way for a parent to help their child get more practice and become more comfortable behind a wheel. Parents can also sign their kids up for these driver education courses to help make sure their child will be safe on the road. All these steps are good ways to help reduce the number of deaths, but there is one step above all else that remains the most important no matter what age you are. That most important step is to simply where your seatbelt every time you are going somewhere whether you are the driver or a passenger. I speak from personal experience when I say how important a seatbelt is because it had saved my life when I was in an accident.

Death is not the only incident that can happen from driving. Accidents are another serious issue that many people are faced with. About 5 years ago I had gotten into an accident where I was a passenger, and a friend was driving. We had gone to a friend’s house who lived on a farm off the main roads. We had left his house and there was a light sprinkle of rain, and it was dark with no road lights on the roads. The driver was coming up to a turn in the road that she did not see and unfortunately drove off the road and we ended up hitting a tree. Thankfully we both survived and just had to deal with injuries. We had gotten very lucky because it was a very serious accident that had totaled the car we were in and even though I was not driving ever since that happened, I have always been a more cautious and more responsible driver.

Whether going on the road for the first time or if you are an experienced driver already it is important to understand how you can be a safer driver. There are simple steps that can help achieve the overall goal of reducing the number of deaths related to driving and we all can start today to do our part. I will always be wearing my seatbelt and my phone will be out of my reach. I will also be willing to give any of my friends a ride wherever they have to go so that we can reduce the number of vehicles on the road. Everyone should be prepared and understand their responsibility when getting behind a wheel to keep themselves and everyone around them safe. If we can all grasp that understanding, then we are all one step closer to becoming safer and more educated drivers to make the roads a safer place.