Raising Awareness To The New Level - Drivers Ed Road-e-o
Driving is a responsibility, not a right - we all heard this phrase more than once. However, another responsibility that we have is raising the safe driving awareness among thousands of teenage drivers who hit the roads for the first time every year. The Mobile Country Public Schools in Alabama are doing a great job with the annual Drivers Ed Road-E-O event, the experience that teaches teenage drivers how to respect the potential dangers of the road and brings public attention to the current issues.
Drivers Ed Road-E-O - What Is It?
The Driver's ed Road-e-o is a competition for the Mobile county public school students that is held annually for the last 6 years. During the competition, students from 13 public schools fight the obstacle course specially build for the task on the large parking lot. The obstacle course imitates most of the potentially dangerous on-road situations we encounter every day and allows students to demonstrate the ability to cope with these challenges.
Goals
Although the competition is played out as a fun whole day event for students and their families, the goals it's chasing is no laughing matter. Every year thousands of teenage drivers get injured on the country roads. In most cases, this happens due to the lack of driving experience, failure to correctly judge the on road situation and take measures to prevent possible hazards. The drivers ed rodeo was designed to provide teenage drivers with a unique chance to practice some advanced driving skills in a safe driving environment and bring public attention to the subject of high crash rates among teen drivers.
Alabama Drivers License Application
At the moment, the licensing system for teenage drivers is governed by the graduated drivers license law. The law requires every first-time license applicant under 18 years of age to participate in a professional drivers education class or take 30 hours of supervised driving lessons with a parent before they can be issued with a drivers license. Most students choose to complete the driving hours as it does not cost anything, so seems only logical to go this way.
The Alabama law is rather on the soft side when compared to similar laws in other states. For example, in California, teenagers are required to complete a drivers education course, 6 hours of driving lessons with a professional driving instructor and at least 50 hours of supervised driving with a parent before they will be issued with the California drivers license. Compared to this, 30 hours of supervised driving in Alabama seem completely insufficient.
Hopefully, with time the public will accept the thought that spending money on drivers education and professional driving lessons is an investment into your own safety and add compulsory education to the current drivers license application procedure in Alabama.
