Chose to save lives

Imagine you are throwing a surprise party for your favorite family member. You have all your family and friends gathered hiding close to you, when the knock on the door happens. Someone gets up to get the door and instead of your family member, there is a police officer. That officer was chosen to deliver your family the heart breaking news that your favorite family member was hit by a distracted driver and died. What is even worse is that this happens to multiple families daily. A mom hears she lost her son, a daughter hears she has to grow up without her dad, a husband loses a wife, a brother loses a sister, a best friend loses her closest friend, and plenty of more. The people who do not understand this are the same people who are okay with driving distracted.

Everywhere safe drivers are needed. It is so important to know how to drive properly and not distracted, so less people do not have to grieve. Regretfully we are not only capable of causing grief but we can also give others depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more just from one little act. We say we need to make the world a better place. That doesn’t just mean picking up trash and being kinder to one another. We need to go the extra mile and care more about other people. We don’t realize how our actions affect others. We need to start considering other people’s feelings and want to bring others love instead of negativity.

To drive without picking up a phone can be such a challenge. I found that what helps me to not grab my phone is having it on a hands-free stand and having my Siri activated to help me. If I want to skip a song, text, or call, all I have to do is say “hey Siri” and Siri does it all without me having to turn my head from the road. Whenever I have someone else in the car with me I also like to have them text or play music for me. Sometimes it can be easier when someone is next to you because if you make a wrong decision while driving, you can imagine the type of consequence that could happen to the beloved person a few inches across from you. Chances are you would never want to hurt anyone in the car. Automatically that makes you want to drive more safely.

One of the hardest challenges is driving by yourself. Sometimes we don’t care if anything happens to us. That can make us just a dangerous as a phone in our hand could. Sometimes it helps to remember that if we do hit someone, we are impacting more than ourselves. We are impacting another family and changing their lives. If that still doesn’t change the way you feel, another thing to consider is that our current circumstances do not compare to the joy that is later to come. However we feel when we drive, there is so much more to life than how that moment may feel. Think of the happiness in achieving your goals, falling in love, doing your favorite things. Just because your circumstance might not be the best, doesn’t mean it will stay like that forever. Remembering these things while driving could help make you want to drive safer, overall reducing the number of deaths happening in one day.

If you ever happen to be in the car with someone who is driving irresponsibly, it is supposed to be easy for us to ask them to stop. What happens if we ask, and they say no? That’s happened to me with my dad a couple of times. Fortunately, nothing bad has ever happened, but it is still a hard thing to build up the courage to ask someone to stop what they are doing to only have them rip it away in one word. You should always take the chance to ask someone to stop driving distracted, you never know, you might save a life that day.

I have been lucky enough to only have been in a couple car accidents and even more lucky to not have any serious damage done. My most recent accident happened because my neighbor decided to drive irresponsibly and ran right into my parked my car. Her whole windshield was covered in ice and my neighbor chose not to uncover her windshield causing her to be unable to see. Even though my neighbor was not distracted by a phone, her decision to not drive responsibly had its own consequences.

It is so important to drive responsibly and with care. All of us are hurting in our own ways, no one needs to be grieving because you decided to pick up your phone.