Driver Education Initiative – Rather a Car than a Coffin

Statistics

There
are 5.25 million driving accidents that occur each year. These are
mostly caused by teens who start or first get comfortable with
driving. Car accidents themselves are the ninth leading cause of
death in the world. Over half of accidents worldwide involve only one
car with many involving a fixed object. Over 400,000 people a day use
their phones illegally while driving. All this shows us how dangerous
distracted driving can be but also being behind the wheel itself.

Importance

Driver
education is extremely important, especially for those in my age
group. I am currently in eleventh grade and I have noticed more and
more people around me obtaining their permits and even getting their
license. I have also seen one of my friends blow out a tire which
seemed very scary at the time. As the next generation literally rolls
around with their cars they do not always know the dangers of the
road. This has lead to reckless driving, and the idea that “It
could never happen to me” because we see ourselves as invincible
but we are not and a mistake can lead to our demise. So it is
important to warm those new and upcoming drivers as well as the older
ones that we must pay more attention on the road in order for there
to be less accidents.

Reduce
deaths

There
are many steps that we should take in order to reduce the number of
deaths caused by driving accidents. We should start with the younger
generations who are or will be driving as they are beginners and have
been shown to be more inclined to getting into an accident. We should
have more programs at school such as drivers ed to teach kids
about driving. We should also be more in your face about it not
holding anything back. This could be through social media or radio
commercials to spread the word to a wider audience. Our goal should
be to plant this idea in the driver’s head that they must be more
cautious while driving to save not only their own life but those
around them.

Personal
experience

I
am pretty certain everyone has experienced these unsafe habits
firsthand either with yourself or by seeing those around you do it.
Personally I have seen my dad use his phone for work related tasks
while behind the wheel. This scares me sometimes but I put a lot of
trust and faith in him even though I should more favorably speak up
about this and ask him to stop especially when many people are in the
car with him. Most of the people in my family or that I know aren’t
the best at staying within the speed limit going lighting fast speeds
down the freeway making me feel uneasy at sudden stops seeing my life
flash before my eyes. Recently in the past years there have been very
bad accidents students from the area or people that I know have been
in.

Personally

I
do not have my permit yet as I have been too lazy to do so. But there
are still actions I can take now that will accomplish my goal of
spreading the dangers of driving and how to be safe on the road. I
can use my social media to spread awareness about these dangers. I
will also let my dad know about how being on the phone and things
like that are very dangerous. I can even talk to the people at start
smart which is a program dedicated to teaching about the dangers of
driving about how I can help. Being more upfront about it towards
people just like how the firefighters come on campus and do a very
dramatic and scary car accident show every year to show the seniors
the horrors of what an actual car accident looks like.