Safety First: The Importance of Educated Drivers

For many teenagers, driving is an exciting rite of passage. It allows them the freedom to go places without relying on their parents. Driving allows a multitude of opportunities for adults as well; most importantly, it reduces the time spent on transportation amongst places. With driving being such a huge part of life, safety is extremely important to consider. Car crashes can be deadly or can change someone’s life dramatically. As a society, it is important to work towards minimizing the number of car crashes that occur, in order to make driving safer for everyone.

Driver education plays a huge role in creating a safer driving environment, thus causing a decrease in the number of car-related deaths. Like any skill, learning to drive takes time and effort. Having a teacher allows an individual to improve their abilities while receiving valuable advice. It also allows for the student to ask questions about situations that might not come to mind until they are at the wheel. The driving instructor also has a good knowledge of the rules, while an adult like a parent might have forgotten some nuances. All of this prepares the student and helps them feel more comfortable with driving. In most driver education programs, there is a portion that you have to watch through or read, which is also extremely important because it covers some situations that do not happen as often in everyday life. Again, this allows the student to feel more comfortable in their abilities as a driver. Going back to safety, knowledge of what to do in situations could be crucial in saving lives. Obviously the more people know the rules of the road and are comfortable with following these rules, the less likely they are to get into a car accident. Driver education also has a big focus on your mindset while driving; teaching tips to stay alert, focused, and taking in the situations. Again, this allows a driver to still be able to figure out what to do even in a situation that could potentially result in an emergency. When a driver is equipped with the proper tools to make decisions in fast-paced situations, they are able to minimize the amount of crashes that they get into. Driver education allows new drivers to learn and solidify these tools, which in turn helps the roads become safer and minimizes the number of deaths.

Unfortunately, a driver’s safety is not only dependent on their own driving abilities. Even if an individual is doing everything correctly, there is the possibility that an accident will occur because someone else might be driving unsafely. This is especially concerning for newer drivers, since they do not necessarily have the fastest reaction time or might not yet be able to focus on everything as well since some skills are not automatic for them right away. In order to reduce the number of driving related deaths, ideally everyone would have to go through some sort of driver education course before getting on the road. This would allow everyone to have a good understanding of the rules of the road and how to drive in a safer manner. Obviously this would not automatically make everyone drive safer, but this way more people would be equipped with the knowledge and skills. While making everyone go through a driver education course might be difficult to establish, making the courses more accessible and affordable would also be helpful because it would allow more people the opportunity to take one. It would also be helpful to have courses that are for people who have already been driving for some time. This would allow people to refresh their knowledge and to reflect on their driving habits. If something like this already exists, it would need to be talked about more since at least in my personal experience, it’s not something that I have heard of. Again, making something like this mandatory and free would be ideal, but having the opportunity and telling people about it would already be helpful, especially if it is affordable.

Thankfully, I have never been in a car accident myself, which I am extremely grateful for. I know that some of my peers have been in car accidents, although I do not know anyone that has been significantly injured or killed in one. I have definitely seen some unsafe driving, both from my peers as well as from family members. With my family members, it is usually something like making a risky turn or trying to make it through an intersection before the light turns red and having to make an abrupt stop. With peers, it is usually related to speeding and running red lights; some of the stories that they tell genuinely fill me with anxiety. To be fair, I know that I am not a perfect driver as well. There’s definitely been times when I’ve accidentally cut someone off while making a lane change or when I’ve had to stop more abruptly than expected. It’s impossible for anyone to be a perfect driver, but things like taking driver education classes can allow people to generally drive safer.

One step that I could definitely take to become a better driver would be to review defensive driving skills and to review the in depth rules of the road. While I do generally consider myself to be a good driver, it is always good to review skills, especially since I have not been in every driving situation ever. This would allow me to be more prepared in case an unexpected situation does arise. Reviewing the rules of the road would also be helpful in order to remember all the nuances and situations that I generally do not encounter, but could technically come up at any time. Both of these things would also allow me to feel even more comfortable and confident in my abilities. In order to help other people become safer drivers, I could recommend driver education courses to them or just find resources online to share with others. As well, I could help raise awareness for the importance of safer driving by sharing things like statistics. While this might not convince everyone to reflect on their driving, the people who do decide to take the steps to become better drivers will already help to make the roads a little safer.

Because of the big role that driving plays in our society, it is important to continue to work to improve the safety of the roads. Having the proper skills and knowledge, as well as feeling comfortable with your skills is extremely important, and driver education classes can help individuals improve their driving. As with any issue, spreading awareness about the impacts of dangerous driving can encourage individuals to actually do something about it. Driving can be an amazing thing and it allows people a lot of freedom in their travels, but without proper safety and skills, it can become a devastating catastrophe. As a society, we need to encourage more drivers to consider their driving habits and to work towards improving the safety of the roads.