Solving the Driving Death Dilemma in the U.S.


This blog is designed to be a hard-hitting, no nonsense kind of blog exposing the failure of the driver education industry with the purpose of actually understanding the root causes of the "Driving Death Dilemma" here in the United States. Only when the root causes are fully exposed and understood is when we can apply the "correct solutions". I welcome your opinions and ideas.



Friday, May 13, 2011

Should Parents Have The Option To Teach Their Own Children To Drive?

Being an expert in the driver training industry, I would have to say "yes" which goes against my own business interests.  In my opinion, the driver training industry (in its present form) is a total disaster. Licensing does not equate to safety as proven by the traffic accident and death statistics.  The assumption that's implied just by receiving a 6-hour completion certificate from a driving school, that the individual is qualified to drive, is a completely false assumption.  Parents should have the choice and at the same time, the difficulty of passing the DMV driving exam should be drastically increased.
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2 comments:

  1. Brian NicholsJuly 13, 2011 at 8:55 PM

    Hi John,
    My names Brian Nichols. I'm the co-founder of Collision Guard. A safe driving site that was started by a group of automotive shop owners. I wanted to leave a quick comment on your post. You have a good point but I'm not sure I completely agree with you. I Believe that professional drivers ed. instructors are the best resource for teaching our child the basic rules of the road,laws and regulations that govern our highway safety. However, I do agree that the current licensing process needs some improvement. Perhaps more teen drivers should participate in a "hands-on" driving program (see link below)that can help them learn how to respond to common emergency situations. I think coupling the traditional drives ed program with a emergency driving class would help a lot. I also think creating a ongoing, fun and creative safe driving awareness program could prove to be a powerful tool that could help parents and teens engage in dialogue that can save lives. Hope it helps and lets keep the dialogue going. -Brian
    http://collisionguard.com/blog/2011/04/
    http://collisionguard.com/

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  2. JohnJuly 14, 2011 at 7:40 PM

    Brian,
    Thanks for the comment. The traditional (30 hour theory and 6 hour driving) drivers ed and training program was developed in 1935 by the National Safety Council. Its purpose was to reduce the 34,494 traffic deaths that occured in 1935 by 7% per year for the next 5 years. In 1941, there were 38,142 traffic deaths showing the plan was a failure. In 1949, the same 30 and 6 program was established as a mandatory high school course. Take a look at these stats:

    1. The number of US soldiers killed in all wars combined from 1775 - 2010:

    1,343,812

    2. The number of people killed in the US due to traffic accidents from 1949 - 2010:

    2,626,975

    This is sheer insanity. With 6.3 million traffic accidents occuring each year, it's safe to state that the traditional drivers ed and training isn't effective. I have created a new driver training methodology that really does work but unfortunately, many people make their living by dealing with the aftermath of the current volume of traffic accidents (lawyers, auto body shops, ambulance, hospitals, ER doctors and nurses, towing companies, auto manufacturers, wrecking yards, etc). It's interesting, insurance companies make money when people "don't have accidents" but there are a multitude of businesses that make money when people "do have accidents" yet it seems the insurance companies are the ones that are vilified. If you make the drive test an extremely difficult test like they have in Germany (75 minutes), then the US could cut their accident rate per capita in half...just like Germany has.
    John

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