Calling all bad drivers!

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Jarrod Johnson, reporter

The driving test is the last tall gate, a rite of passage for every teenager to receive their driver’s license. Passing the test seems to be the problem for some; it is a hands-on test inside a vehicle of choice with an instructor in the passenger seat. After making sure the car can start, the tester requires 4 things of the driver to pass the test.

The drivers’ test includes making a right hand turn at an intersection and making a left hand turn at an intersection into traffic. Then the driver must make a 3 point turn (broken u-turn), and after that parallel park the car. That may seem simple enough to do but there is a lot of things that could instantly fail the test.

The list of things to automatically fail the test is very long. This ranges from not buckling a seatbelt to bringing a car that isn’t road worthy, so here are just some main things that will automatically fail the test:  texting and driving, exceeding the speed limit, not using a turn signal, braking too hard, changing lanes in an intersection, and not yielding for traffic.  As long as these things are not done during the test, it should be an easy pass for an eager teenager.

Micah Artz is Big Spring High School’s drivers ed teacher and he had a few tips for new drivers. “They test you on  basic driving knowledge, so study your practice manual and the chapter questions and you should be fine.” The practice book contains all of the rules of the road, and at the end of each chapter, there are practice questions that will be directly from the written test.

Teen drivers often find themselves nervous to drive or just don’t want to drive at all. Junior Zoey Lomsion said, “I don’t take criticism very well so I’m afraid that if he (the instructor) says I did something wrong then i’ll do worse”. This simple problem can be solved very easy by just practicing before going to the test itself. With a permit, driving with a parent is great practice so that the student is prepared to drive when the test arrives.

The driving test is very simple if the driver does not panic, follow the rules of the road, and doesn’t make any critical errors the drivers test will be easy to pass.