Driver Education Initiative – Driving Is More Than Education

Driving
is an extremely important responsibility. Fewer responsibilities in
life demand so much and carry such a heavy burden as driving. In
order to be fully equipped to handle this responsibility, people must
be properly and adequately educated. Unfortunately, when people are
underprepared for this task, serious injury, material damage, or even
death often ensues. So the question remains: How can education be
utilized to make the roads a safer place for everyone?

Drivers
education allows students to learn the rules and regulations for
safely operating a motor vehicle. Ultimately, this goes beyond
simply learning facts, figures and lists of rules. One of the most
valuable aspects of a quality program is getting a trial run behind
the wheel with an instructor who is a professional, expert driver.
This experience allows teens to understand the mechanics of a car and
to determine their comfortability with driving in a variety of
situations. Without this necessary education for students determined
to be able to drive, imagine how prevalent motor vehicular deaths
would be in America. For some people, drivers ed is the only
source of training they receive to operate a vehicle that has the
power to cause devastation and destruction with improper use. Drivers
education gives people a chance to learn the correct ways to operate
a motor vehicle and how to respond to other drivers. These skills
are ones that they carry with them as they go out onto potentially
dangerous roadways. Think about how many people die each year due to
vehicular-related accidents. Educating drivers properly can
significantly decrease the number of these deaths.

However,
drivers ed alone does not eliminate the problem. Although most
accidents happen within a person’s first year of driving, more than
half of the driving population die from these accidents between the
ages of 15 to 44
(https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/).
If the government can only affect a small portion of the driving
population in their education and reminders of proper and safe
techniques of operating a vehicle, then something more needs to be
done beyond one-time education. In an effort to prevent deaths each
year, drivers need to be reminded constantly of their responsibility.
Often, people, especially as they age, begin to become comfortable in
the driver’s seat and more lax about the driving rules and
regulations. This causes people to tend to look at their phones, go
over the speed limit, or break other traffic laws that are put in
place to keep people safe simply because they “feel like they can
handle it.” Unfortunately, this causes people to die unnecessarily
because of any number of unsafe and unlawful decisions that are made
by people who become “too comfortable” behind the wheel. To
reduce the number of deaths that take place in America due to
traffic-related accidents, it needs to be realized that roadway
crashes are often both predictable and preventable. If the government
takes responsibility to raise awareness, legislate, and enforce laws
pertaining to speed limits, drug impairment, seat-belt usage, and
child restraints
(https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/)
then it would be a positive step toward ensuring that people do not
die due to vehicular crashes. Furthermore, I believe that continuing
education and requiring road tests to be taken periodically
throughout a driver’s life would make people more responsible for
their driving habits. To encourage safer driving practices, it is
the job of everyone to take responsibility for their actions as it is
a shared goal to make roadways a safer place.

Personally,
I have been in a car accident. As statistically indicated, this
happened within my first year of driving. I learned firsthand what
happens when you rush while driving. Consequently, I was not as
attentive as I needed to be. Luckily, I was not harmed. The people
that I collided with were not so fortunate. They had to be taken to
the hospital by ambulance. It was unnerving to think that my lack of
attention for a split second, not looking to my right a second time,
caused this accident. As I sat in my car where it landed across the
road sitting next to a stop sign, I remember calling my parents,
speaking to the EMT personnel who came to check on me and waiting for
my dad to come. This time seemed endless because I could not see
anything that was happening around me. The truck that had hit me
seemed to appear out of nowhere. I did not even see it before I was
spun around and facing the opposite direction. I knew the people in
the truck were alive, but I had overheard that one of them needed to
be taken to the hospital. I have always been very responsible and
often have been told that I am wise beyond my years. However, I had
become too comfortable behind the wheel. I had fallen victim to what
many teenager drivers believe prior to an accident: it will never
happen to me! Well, it did! It was not because I did not have the
proper training or sufficient education. I was involved in an
avoidable accident because I was rushing to get to my destination
quickly. I neglected all my education and training in that split
second. I learned a very valuable lesson that day: Education is
more than just acquiring the knowledge needed to be successful. In
order to ultimately be successful, I have to remember and utilize all
the skills and information from my training every time I get in my
car. Driving is a responsibility that I cannot take lightly. To be
a better and safer driver, it is essential that we, both as an
individual and a collective, identify and understand what causes
unsafe driving and how to rectify the problem. By actively practicing
safe driving techniques each time I enter a vehicle, and encouraging
others to do the same, I can make an impact to make the roads a safer
place.