Driver Education: Important or No?

Car related deaths are at the ultimate high in the United States right now. I wonder if they took the process and made it a little harder if it would reduce them? I wonder if they patrolled a little more if that would make a difference. I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t speed a little here and there, but I’ve seen some that can’t ever go the speed limit and need to go 100 everywhere they go. I honestly think that the number of deaths we see daily due to car accidents is absurd. I think there is more that can be done to prevent them. The first thing is that I don’t think that they make teenagers do enough behind the scenes to get the education that they need to operate something that big and important. Like, we take a written test and then a few weeks later we drive a circle to pass the driving part of the test. That’s how I passed my test, and to be honest I barely stopped at the stop sign with the officer and she just lectured me on the importance of stopping but I still got my license. I’ve seen how some of my friend’s drive, and I wonder what they got away with on their test. I don’t think “the circle” is long enough that they have us drive, and that they don’t make it hard enough. I think that they should make the driving test portion longer and more difficult for the student. I also think that if it’s before a certain age that defensive driving or some other type of driving class should be required before getting the license. I admit that taking the defensive driving course made me a better driver, because the things you see on there that you don’t think would ever happen to you make you really open your eyes on the road. I’m not saying that as a sixteen-year-old I would be happy with these choices, but I think looking back now that it would be a little harder to get that card in your hand. Not only is your life more important than that text or whatever has your attention, but the people around you in other vehicles, walking, etc. are more important than that as well. I also think that it’s important to take it seriously. It’s considered heavy machinery and you don’t look cute or cool by making donuts in the parking lot and flipping your truck over. My dad had a friend who thought of doing wheelies in the parking lot on a motorcycle and ended up wrecking and hitting his head on the curb, unfortunately he didn’t make it. Little things like that no only hinder you but the loved ones in your life as well. I think that if we patrolled more on the side streets and for odd hours instead of just the same hours each day then we might catch some more of these people with the speeding or careless driving issues around here. I know in my town it’s pretty evident that they are going to be posted up at the same place every day around the same time, but never during the hours that the teenagers are out running around. Even if they shouldn’t be. I know that cops have so much more than they do besides patrolling, I’ll even agree that would be an essay for another time, but I still think it would help. But the most important thing we could consider is to do more testing before giving them that license. I honestly think that a defensive driving type course would make a tremendous change in how people learn and act once they get the card in their hands. I think if people see what could happen with certain things that they do daily that it would make a difference in how they react behind the wheel on a daily basis. If they could see what they could do to someone else, or someone else could do to them for being careless then maybe that would be enough to change their habits. It probably wouldn’t hurt to make people take that type of course or some other type every so often after they get their license. Cause let’s face it there’s some older people out there that shouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel but there’s nothing happening to take it away from them. It’s not always the young people like me that are the issues on the road. But, again that’s more food for though on another day.