In this life people see and experience many dangers. One source of the danger we see are natural disasters, but some dangers are not natural. Some unnatural dangers, like murder, suicide, and robbery are intentionally brought upon someone by either themselves or others, while other unnatural dangers are accidents. One type of unnatural danger that causes many people to unintentionally kill themselves or others is impaired driving. I am going to explain what impaired driving is; how and why driver’s education and traffic school courses can help to prevent impaired driving; and how I, as an individual, can help to reduce impaired driving.

 First, I am going to talk about what impaired driving is. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary impair means “to diminish in function, ability, or quality. To weaken or make worse,” so impaired driving could be thought of as meaning “driving while something is preventing you from driving your best.” It may sometimes be misunderstood as driving while drunk or under the influence of drugs; it may be that this misunderstanding is caused by incorrect teaching on the meaning of the phrase impaired driving. The meaning of impaired driving can include driving while texting, reading, being distracting by other people in the car, setting your GPS, and much more. According to the Pain Law Group, the three most common types of impaired driving are alcohol, drugs, and distracted driving. But all kinds of impaired driving can have dangerous effects on the driver of the car, their passengers, and other road users; this includes bikers and even pedestrians. Impaired driving hinders drivers from driving their best, and it effects their decision-making process. A bad decision-making process is a huge risk.

Now I will discuss how and why driver’s education and traffic school courses can help with the problem of impaired driving. Driver’s education and traffic school courses can help to change the attitudes around impaired driving by showing and explaining to students some of the consequences that impaired driving can have. Changing students’ attitudes will hopefully change their behavior as a result. Driver’s education and traffic school courses can be effective in real life circumstances. This is because they show students concrete things that can and do happen in real life, not just some abstract rules and advice which can be hard to apply. For example, if a traffic school course shows a video of what happens to manikins in a simulated car wreck where the car is speeding, the people who see it may be less likely to speed because they have seen some consequences of speeding. Or if a driver’s education course showed a video of what things look like for people who are driving while drunk, it might influence the students who see it not to drink and drive.

 Lastly, I am going to talk about how I, as an individual, can help to reduce impaired driving. First of all, I cannot control the behavior of the other people around me. But I can control my own behavior, so to help prevent impaired driving, I could choose not to do it myself. Since I have had driver’s education, I can use my knowledge and training to influence others to make safe decisions. I can do this by being a good example for the other people who are around me; for instance, if I am asked to do something distracting while I am driving, I can say, “Sorry, I can’t do that while I’m driving.” Doing this would set a good example to those around me. Also, if someone who is riding in my car is being a distraction, I can politely tell them, “What you are doing right now is making it hard for me to drive; would you please stop?” This would also be setting a good example.

Now I have explained what impaired driving is; how and why driver’s education and traffic school courses can help to reduce impaired driving; and how I, as an individual, can help to reduce impaired driving. To review, impaired driving can be thought of as meaning “driving while something is preventing you from driving your best;” these preventing factors include alcohol, drugs, texting, fatigue, reading, setting your GPS, and more. Driver’s education and traffic school courses can be an effective means of reducing impaired driving because they show things in a way that is concrete and can be applied in real life. I can choose to drive safely and to set a good example to the people who are around me.