When the odds get beat

I’ve never been in an accident for all of my life when I was the driver. Before I had gotten my license or taken both drivers Ed classes courses I was in one with a friend. She was so gracious to be my ride to and from work when we worked the same days, which I couldn’t be more grateful for. It was just like any other drive home, me in the passenger seat and her driving, down this road we’d gone down so many times. We were just talking about both our common interests and the song that was playing at that moment, which striked a great walk down memory lane; I looked down at my phone to find a photo to recall the great time we had in our freshman year of high school. We both were in theater, her a tech and me an actor, and the song that had turned on happened to be from both our very first musicals.

As I was scrolling back in my camera, suddenly bursting through the music of my past was a quick scream from my friend and a thud in the car, which stopped the steady pace we were traveling beforehand. My friend pulled off into a parking lot which was next to us, and I looked back to see another car quickly swerving off to the other side of the parking lot. My friend quickly panicked if the guy was gonna stop or keep moving on, but luckily he too did stop, rushing over to our car. I reached onto the ground to find my phone which had fallen from my palm, only then I had realized the cars had collided.

With hindsight now I have gone through both stages of drivers Ed I learned what can cause a crash. Of course we had music playing, but not some loud punk rock beat that could distract us, it was simply a fun theatrical song of our past. Neither she or I had ever induldged in any drugs or alcohol, and not to mention we were just on our way home from work. Finally her phone was on to not disturb, only on to play the music that we both enjoyed. None of the things that could cause a crash on our part could have happened.

It was then that the other person involved in the accident ran over checking on us, he himself driving alone. We were all okay, thankfully, and now it was a matter for the police. The other man in the accident called the police and my friend and I were left alone. She struggled to open her door but it wouldn’t budge, and she began to breathe heavily. I couldn’t tell if she was going to hyperventilate for I’d never seen it happen to anyone. My friend began to touch on how years prior someone had T-boned her in a school parking lot, bad luck seemed to follow her everywhere in the aspect of driving. I offered a hug as she began to cry and took it, we sat there for a moment while I told her everything would be okay and this wouldn’t be as bad as she thought. She began to say how the police officer would see it as a teenage girl being reckless with her driving but I told her it would all be okay. Since she couldn’t get out I stepped out to assess the damage of her car.

I’d always seen accidents on the sides of the highway as my family would drive by but this was a whole new experience; knowing that the damage on the car I was about to see would affect my friend. I looked at the damage of the car and saw that to the driver’s side it seemed to crunch inward, and the light seemed dimmer compared to the other and the mirror seemed to angle in a way I’d never seen. The night was chilly and the wind blew across me, and of course this was the day I decided to not wear a coat to work. So I stood there in a t-shirt, illuminated only by the moonlight and the dimming light of the car’s headlight. Then the man who had ran into us came over and he said something to both me and my friend, along the lines of how her headlights weren’t on so when he tried to turn from the turn lane to the side road he hit us. He left once more and that just didn’t make sense because my friend’s car had automatic lights when the car turned on. We both called our family informing them of the situation that had occurred, and her mom and dad were on their way. I said I’d stay with her because I didn’t want to leave her.

The police officer had arrived and took ID from both my friend, the other driver, and me. This process seemed to last for a long time, while he would check everything in his car my friend and I sat in her mother’s car and waited; finally in the end he came over and let us know that our state is a no fault state, but he would write in his report that there were many street lights that would have allowed the man to see our car coming on the slight chance that my friend’s lights were off. I saw how that took a lot of stress off my friend’s shoulders. We went on our way, having to leave the car since it would not be safe enough to drive so they had to get a tow truck the following day.

Though I wasn’t the driver I still seemed to walk away with more knowledge about driving, which in my opinion has affected how I drive today. Even on the clear night an accident happened, even with us not doing anything to cause an accident, the accident still seemed to beat the odds and come at us. Whenever I drive I don’t let only those few things secure me so that I wouldn’t get into an accident. My friend is a very responsible woman and she didn’t do anything to cause an accident, but the circumstances still caused it. So no matter how empty the street may look, or how close I am driving to the speed limit, I always drive with the caution that something could always beat the odds and an accident could try and come my way. I implore everyone I can to watch what happens when they drive, take every caution they can to be safe, and even when they do that I try to push them to take the extra step of knowing no matter how hard they try the odds can always be beaten.