Teenagers learn about defensive driving at Meridian Community College.

According to an article on m.ms.gov, in Mississippi, one out of two people are killed in a car accident that didn’t have their seat belt fastened. Today at Meridian Community College, the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Street Defensive Driving: taught teenage beginner drivers the importance of highway safety, as well as always remaining alert while driving. Several demonstrations were given while also allowing teenagers the opportunity to get behind the wheel.

"It’s a combination of a 3-day school and what we’re trying to accomplish here with the students, is to create a more highly creative class of citizen. The end goal is to reduce the fatalities that we’re experiencing on our streets and highways, and most of those come from things that you just can’t get out of basic drivers education. The skills that we teach in this course through streets defensive driving, which is a 501 C 3 organization, is life survival skills behind the wheel, the ways to get out of critical incidents that they find themselves in, you know."

According to Matuszewski, "most car accidents are from a lack of experienced drivers, especially at a young age."

“To address the number of accidents we see, and the ratio that we see, we have a very large disproportion amount of people that are involved in accidents in their first year of driving that’s 16 to 17 age range, it’s expeditionary more than the seventeen to 18 year age range and that's all based off on experience.”

When prospective drivers are interested in receiving a driving permit or license, the state of Mississippi does have certain criteria a driver must meet before obtaining a license.

"The state of Mississippi, you can get a permit just by going in and passing a written examination, and then you have the ability to drive with an adult that’s over 21 years of age that’s with you for a period of time, to get those skills sets up to where you go and take your final driving test, which is both a written and a practical examination.”