Name: Thomas John Weaver
From: Rochester, NY
Votes: 0
Drivers ed is crucial in reducing the number of deaths as a
result of driving. Statistically people who completed a drivers
education course either through their school or through a separate
school of driving are much less likely to get in an accident. Drivers
education allows students to learn tips for road safety, precisely
what mistakes they are making, and what exactly they can do to avoid
these mistakes, and learn this in a safe environment with an
experienced driver in the car. Most importantly though, the students
get PRACTICE. Teens are so much more likely to be in accidents
because of their lack of experience driving; the most important part
of becoming a good driver is getting experience on the road, and
getting this practice is much safer with a drivers ed instructor or
parent in the car than by yourself after you’ve gotten your
license. My drivers ed instructor pestered us constantly, “Did you
do a ton of driving?,” or “you’ve got to nag your parents to
drive” were both things he said at least once every time we did our
weekly driving for our school’s Drivers Ed. I think that
specifically how to make sure young drivers are getting a lot of
practice on the road is a much more difficult question to answer. A
possible solution could be just requiring teenagers to have a written
log of every time they were driving to get their license, to prevent
cases of parents not really keeping track of how much their child has
been driving then signing the sheet saying their child got 50 hours
driving practice when they actually got 20. However, the greatest
cause of car crashes themselves is not inexperienced drivers but
distracted driving. This is actually probably my earliest memory from
my childhood, when I was four my Dad and I were rear ended by a mom
who was distracted by trying to stop her kids from fighting while
driving. She was in a big truck, as were we, and I was fine in the
back seat, but if we had had a small car like we do now, I might have
been seriously hurt or killed. About 2/3rds of accidents occur
seconds after one of the drivers is momentarily distracted whether it
be just by texting, just the phone buzzing, people using their
dashboard, reaching for something, eating while driving, or anything
else that takes the person’s attention away from the road. Things
like this are often easily preventable, not eating while driving,
having your phone all the way off or on do not disturb while driving,
and having the song playlist picked out before the drive are all easy
ways to prevent distracted driving crashes. I and other teenagers can
become safer drivers by getting as much practice on the road as
possible, and I and other drivers in general can become better and
safer drivers by being more aware of distracted driving and how to
prevent distractions on the road.
