Writer's Block: Teenagers & Car Accidents
Setting aside that (last I knew), depending on how you group drivers, the very oldest group is either just as bad or worse than teenagers... I think it's a combination of three factors: teenagers are inexperienced drivers (as would anyone who had just learned to drive), driver's ed courses (when offered) are often not very good, and our culture encourages teenagers to be irresponsible. Actually, our culture encourages drivers, period, to be irresponsible, but I think it may have an even greater impact on the new drivers out there. For one thing, it's more dangerous for an inexperienced driver to speed than for an experienced driver to speed.
I think the two biggest things we could do to make teen drivers (and all drivers) safer would be to make sure that driver's ed is both required and competent and to change our cultural attitude toward driving. When I took driver's ed, we used a poorly maintained car with serious alignment problems, non working windshield wipers, and various other issues. We were told not to practice outside of class, yet our second class involved highway driving. It was a nightmarish mess, in other words. Driver's ed should use properly functioning cars and spend a good deal more time teaching people the basics before dumping students on to highways. Driver's ed should also include learning to handle a car under emergency situations and on bad road conditions, neither of which we were taught. Proper driver's ed would help a lot.
Our culture is a more challenging problem, but I think it's an important one to face. We have to stop praising, or at least accepting, bad driving if we want new drivers to be good drivers. We shouldn't treat the speed limits as suggestions. We should frown on automakers using ads that are all about speed. We should encourage people of all ages to wear their seatbelts, not drive when they're tired, and drive the speed limit (or below in bad weather). Every time we put down people for driving safely, we're sending a message that driving unsafely is the right thing to do. So, folks, let's stop sneering at people who follow the speed limit and buckle up. We managed to make drunk driving less cool (though that needs work still, too), let's get to work on other "cool" bad driving.
Take a good look at Allstates "Facts about teen driving" and consider what some of them mean. After all, adult drivers made up 88% of the individuals involved in automobile crash deaths in 2006. How many of us adults also talk on cell phones, or, worse, text on them when we drive? How many of us speed? Think hard about the fact that "69 percent of teens who speed say they do so because they want to keep up with traffic." Somehow, I don't think traffic consists only of teen drivers. Are the fellow drivers who 67% of teens felt unsafe as passengers of all teens? Why do teens have the lowest rate of seatbelt use? Have they just not learned to lie when asked if they wear their seatbelt? (Think about it, someone, somewhere is modeling not wearing their seatbelts.) And, to go back to the need for driver's ed, are teens less safe at night because they haven't actually been taught to drive at night?
So, everybody who drives, let's try cleaning up our act, too. It's not just important that teenagers drive safely; it's important that we all drive safely.
I think the two biggest things we could do to make teen drivers (and all drivers) safer would be to make sure that driver's ed is both required and competent and to change our cultural attitude toward driving. When I took driver's ed, we used a poorly maintained car with serious alignment problems, non working windshield wipers, and various other issues. We were told not to practice outside of class, yet our second class involved highway driving. It was a nightmarish mess, in other words. Driver's ed should use properly functioning cars and spend a good deal more time teaching people the basics before dumping students on to highways. Driver's ed should also include learning to handle a car under emergency situations and on bad road conditions, neither of which we were taught. Proper driver's ed would help a lot.
Our culture is a more challenging problem, but I think it's an important one to face. We have to stop praising, or at least accepting, bad driving if we want new drivers to be good drivers. We shouldn't treat the speed limits as suggestions. We should frown on automakers using ads that are all about speed. We should encourage people of all ages to wear their seatbelts, not drive when they're tired, and drive the speed limit (or below in bad weather). Every time we put down people for driving safely, we're sending a message that driving unsafely is the right thing to do. So, folks, let's stop sneering at people who follow the speed limit and buckle up. We managed to make drunk driving less cool (though that needs work still, too), let's get to work on other "cool" bad driving.
Take a good look at Allstates "Facts about teen driving" and consider what some of them mean. After all, adult drivers made up 88% of the individuals involved in automobile crash deaths in 2006. How many of us adults also talk on cell phones, or, worse, text on them when we drive? How many of us speed? Think hard about the fact that "69 percent of teens who speed say they do so because they want to keep up with traffic." Somehow, I don't think traffic consists only of teen drivers. Are the fellow drivers who 67% of teens felt unsafe as passengers of all teens? Why do teens have the lowest rate of seatbelt use? Have they just not learned to lie when asked if they wear their seatbelt? (Think about it, someone, somewhere is modeling not wearing their seatbelts.) And, to go back to the need for driver's ed, are teens less safe at night because they haven't actually been taught to drive at night?
So, everybody who drives, let's try cleaning up our act, too. It's not just important that teenagers drive safely; it's important that we all drive safely.