By Marvin Smith

Special to the Post

North Carolina roads are going to be a lot less safe for your family. Politicians are doing away with mandatory driver ed for over 120,000 teenagers annually despite the fact that driver education, along with graduated licensing, is credited with a 38 percent decrease in fatal wrecks among 16-year-olds. Don’t let the North Carolina Senate experiment with the safety of your loved ones. Tell your state senator, to support required driver education and state funding. Driver education saves lives.

We all share the roads — your family and mine are at risk with increased untrained drivers on the road.

Taxpayers should support this program with funding. After all, it’s a matter of public safety for all of us, just like we fund health care and other programs that provide for the public safety of all our citizens. State law mandates everyone under age 18 take a state-approved driver education class, so they should provide the funds for the class.

All who drive on North Carolina roads are at risk, and our road safety hangs in the balance. I’d like to take a moment to share some facts with you about driver safety so you can understand and be worried for you and your family when driving if North Carolina does not require driver education for our teenagers and provide funding for the program.

Fact: North Carolina had 174 teenage fatalities in 2009;  in 2013 that number had dropped to 111, which is a 37 percent reduction in deaths. In 2009 there were 392 teenagers involved in serious injuries and in 2013 the number had dropped to 255, a 35 percent decrease. Finally, in 2009 there were 37,215 crashes by teenagers in the state and that number dropped to 33,264 in 2013, a 10.8 percent decrease.

Fact: Auto accidents claimed the lives of 2,439 American teens in 2012, this was less than half the number recorded in 2002. This can be attributed in part to some states adopting stricter driver licensing standards and mandatory driver education.

Fact: North Carolina’s graduated licensing program is credited with reducing deaths and crashes involving young drivers. The AAA Study (October 2014) reports a 47 percent decrease in fatal collisions among 16 years olds after two years of licensure experience.

Fact: The 2014 N.C. Strategic Highway Safety Plan includes nine focus areas and the Driver Education Program administered through the Department of Public Instruction in our public high schools is part of seven of these areas in seeking to keep N.C. highways safe for all our drivers.

Fact: Parent-taught driver education alone has proven to be ineffective. A 2007 study from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University and commissioned by the National Highway Safety Administration supports this fact.

Fact: The Driver Education Program serves more than 100,000-120,000 public, charter, private and homeschool students annually in North Carolina. This represents a large number of voters in each district statewide.

The facts are irrefutable and the sources for the facts can be found on our website: DriverEducationMattters.com

Most importantly, tell your N.C. state senator to stop trying to put your family at risk on our roads and support driver education.

Marvin Smith, owner of Marvin Smith Driving School in Albemarle, is president of the N.C. Driver Traffic Safety Education Association.